


Our Final Beginning

by nitorisoup



Category: Free!, Free! Eternal Summer - Fandom, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club - Fandom
Genre: Bipolar Disorder, Dysfunctional Family, Dyslexia, High School, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Learning Disabilities, Multi, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slice of Life, Sports, Surfing, Swimming, lots of gay, transfer students
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-14
Updated: 2015-02-18
Packaged: 2018-02-08 19:14:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 32,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1952841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nitorisoup/pseuds/nitorisoup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a fiction about three kids who move to Iwatobi from America and join the Iwatobi swim club. The kids have moved a lot through out their lives as was the price of their parents' jobs. In this fic the kids finally have the ability, at their age to settle down in Iwatobi and thus start their final beginning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Far Away Place

 

"Guys! Guys wake up!" an excited girls voice rang through the half-awake ears of Ron McColly and David Miles.

Two boys that had been on this god forsaken plane for who knows how long, and had just begun to get some very needed rest, when the unwelcomed awakening took place. The trip from California to Japan was a long one, and not a very fun one to be quite honest. This is what it was like having sucessful parents, however, and it was something they would just have to endure. All considered though a few long plain rides and moving a few times every couple of years was a small price to pay for the income that it brought the two boys families.

The curly, raven haired David looked up at the girl, who happened to be his younger sister, with confused green eyes.

"Christ Jen could you be any fucking louder?" he complained.

The girl stood in the isle in front of him, hands on her hips and face displaying a meaningful pout, shook her head. This caused the ends of her bleach-blonde ponytails to slap her shoulders at they moved with her head.

"YES I CAN, DAVEY, IF THAT'S WHAT YOU PREFER!" she proclaimed, raising her voice causing it to echo off the walls of the surprisingly empty plane.

Both boys moaned in disagreement with the noise.

"Why do we have to get up Jenna?" the ginger haired, freckled boy, in the seat next to David, closest to the window inquired.

"Becaaaause, Ron, we're here! We've landed already and you dummies slept right through it. We have to get off the plane, come on slow pokes." Jenna answered, leaning in twords them then snapping back upright.

She reached up to get their carry-on luggage from the over head for them, as the two carcases in front of her slowly brought themselves back to life. Pulling themselves from a few layers of blankets, they got out and helped get out the luggage, quickly exiting the plane. A sense of urgency to leave washed over them once they realized they were the only three left on the plane. It didn't help that the stewards and stewardesses were staring at them impatiently.

Once off the plain, the trio found the way to the rest of their families. The Miles family was a rather small one. Once David and his 16 year old sister reunited with their mother, Annabelle, the whole family was together. The kids parents had divorced when they were still young. Their father was very controlling and disapproving of any decisions that involved any risk or any career that didn't involve being in the armed forces. When David was 5 and Jenna was 4, their mother gained full custody of them and they honestly couldn't be happier. Their family was indeed small, but a happy one at least.

The McColly family on the other hand was quite large. Ron was the youngest of three children. Two older sisters to be exact. Ron bore the age of 18, as did David, and had a sister of the age 22, named Ashley, and a sister of the age of 28, named Eliza. Ron's parents, Hydie and Luke, were both along on this trip as well, for his parents had been happily married for 32 years. This wasn't the conclusion of his family however. Traveling with them were also the Rudgbe family. Which consisted of his oldest sister, her husband, Raymond, and his 5 year old niece, Dana.

It seemed silly to Ron that his two older sisters accompanied them on this trip. They were both adults. They could have stayed in California. If they had stayed behind in Cali, Ron may even have opted to. He was 18 after all. The decision was in his hands. However, much like his sisters, his need to stay with his family was greater than his need to stay in Los Angeles.

With the families all combined into one large herd, they devised a plan in which they split up. The boys, and Jenna went to get the rest of their luggage, of which there was alot seeing since they had literally all brought their entire closets. They did plan on moving and living here after all. The rest of the girls then set off to pick up their vehicles, which had been sent here via ship a few days earlier. There would be quite a few of them to claim as well. Raymond and Eliza's Soul, Hydie and Luke's Nissan Rouge, Ashley's Charger, Annabelle's Corolla, David's old beat up van that no one knows who or where he bought it from (or why, it was a peice of shit of petes sake), and Ron's precious Harley Davidson.

It took a few long hours of arguing and hard labor but eventually all vehicles were acquired and luggage was packed. Most of the luggage found itself in the back of David's van. It had the most storage space after all. Ron's bike was loaded in the back of it as well. Ron, David, and Jenna all rode together in the van, while the others drove their own vehicles and began their not-quite-as-long-but-still-pretty-fucking-long journey by car from Tokyo to the small town that they would be now calling home, Iwatobi.

__ __ __

  
Ron flew through the house and up the stairs with his last bag of luggage, burst through the door to his new bed room, threw the suitcase in the pile with the others and then threw himself down on his bed.

"DONE!" he groaned out the word loud as he could.

Ron had been the last one to finish bringing his things into his room, but now that he had they were officially settled. Unpacking had yet to be done, of things other than his bed dressings like sheets, pillows and blankets, but as the boy wrapped himself in said blankets, he couldn't care less about the future unpacking. He was finally in a house, on a bed, not on a bus, or a plane, or a rusty old van. He was home.

A knock came on his door and he mumbled a nearly inaudible, "come in." The door opened and David stepped into the room, glancing about at all Ron's furniture and it's placement. His room was fairly big, and Ron had had his furniture arranged much like the old house. His bed was pushed into the far left corner of the room, diagonal from the door, running lengthwise with the back wall. His desk was in the corner opposite his bed, under a few shelves that would eventually hold large cd racks and trophies, he could only assume. In between the bed and the desk was a window outlooking the barren beach that the back of the McColly house faced. Under the window was a small chest that had a cushion on the lid that made it suitable for sitting on, creating a nice perch for Ron to be able to snuggle onto to look out the window. Along the far right wall was Ron's closet that was open, and contained a bunch of suitcases and boxes. The far left wall contained Ron's dresser and the door to a bathroom that was connected to his room. On the front wall, the one that held the door, was his tv and the shelves that held his cable box and gaming system, as well as an empty shelf case that would eventually hold all his video games.

David shut the door behind him and ran his hand along the dark blue walls for a moment after he did so. He shoved himself away from the wall, which with his socks against the laminate wood floor, made him take on long slide directly to the bed, which he caught himself on. He sat down next to the heap of blankets that made up Ron. He leaned down and shifted through them eventually finding Ron's head. Ron reluctantly opened his eyes and looked up at David, who, as always, was smiling.

David ran his fingers through Ron's messy, carrot-red hair, "We're finally home, babe." he cooed.

Ron gave a small smile. "Yeah. It's not over yet though tomorrow we gotta start unpacking everything. Then we start school on Monday."

David groaned. "Yeah I know. Not looking forward to it."

The green eyed boy pulled at the blankets surrounding the freckled one, trying to find his way into them. Ron helped untangle himself and allowed David to crawl under the blankets with him. The two snuggled their bodies close together, arms rapped around one another. Ron snuggled his head into the crook of the slightly taller boy's neck.

"You know I didn't get to take a good look around today. Maybe tomorrow after we unpack we can go and roam around the property?" Ron suggested, his voice tired, "You know like an adventure?"

David perked up. He loved adventures. When him and Ron were younger they'd always run around each others houses, neighbors' yards, the city, anywhere they could explore. David smiled at the memories as he rapped his arms tighter around Ron.

"Yeah. I'd like that." he answered, giving a small kiss to the top of his boyfriend's head.

Ron giggled. It was a cute and innocent little giggle, a sound he didn't make often, or at all around people other then David. David knew that well and knowing he was the only one capable of making Ron do that, warmed his heart. He found Ron's cheeks to pepper them with small kisses, causing the freckled boy to omit even more giggles.

They stayed like that, cuddled in blankets, talking, kissing, and giggling for a while until they both eventually fell asleep like that. They then finaly got the rest they needed, along with the rest of the families, snugged in their own beds.

__ __ __

  
The morning sun came all to early, everyone agreed on that. After breakfast was made, (or well brought home from a nearby gas station), and eaten everyone set to work on unpacking the things into their own houses.

The set up of this large group move was this: Hydie McColly, being the person who had decided to expand her business all the way out here as her fist location outside of North America, was the one who would take care of everyone's homes and schooling. Hydie and Luke bought a large plot of land that sat in a foresty-beach area, a small ways outside Iwatobi. She then had small portions of the large land cleared and 3 houses built. Her own home contained herself, Luke, Ashley, and Ron, and was the largest. Then two slightly smaller homes, however equal in size to each other, were constructed for the Miles and the Rudgbe families. The houses were all an equal walking distance apart, and were formed in the shape of a triangle. They each had separate driveways that split off from the main way that set off their property from the main road and separate garages.

The large property plot was all fenced in as to separate it from the surrounding wooded area. The plot was large enough to hide the houses from view of the main road. All that could be seen from there was a fancy code-locked gate that led to a newly paved road leading off into the forest. The houses were further into the forest, closer to the end of it, nearly on the beach. The back of the McColly house in fact faced the beach, which as mentioned before, gave Ron's room a perfect view of the ocean.

It took the majority of the day to unpack everyone's belongings. Decorations were to be unpacked like posters, pictures, trophies, and such. Then there was everyones useful items like books, cds, video games, controllers, laptops, toys. Finally they all unpacked their cloths and shoes. After this most of them got showered and got dressed in fresh cloths and set about their business for the rest of the day.

Hydie, being the one who organize this entire thing and the one who did most of the unpacking for Ashley and Luke, because they were both horrid slobs, was nothing less that exhausted. Therefore she sat down to a well earned, relaxing TV break. Luke took Ashley, Annabell, and Raymond with him to the store so that each of them could fill their houses up with food to eat, while Eliza stayed home and watched Dana. Once everyone was gone and doing their own thing, Ron, David and Jenna all collected together to go explore the new property.

Jenna, being the fire ball of energy she was, bounded far ahead of the two boys, babbling about how cool everything looked and how foreign it all was.The two boys stayed at a moderate pace behind her looking at everything and talking about the scenery, all while holding hands.

"Ey JenJen," David eventually called ahead to his sister, after about an hour of exploring the forest.

"What is it David?! I'm busy being Tarzan." she called down to him from her perch, up within a tree.

"How warm do you think that ocean is out there?" he asked, head motioning to the beach to their right, past a bit of thin trees and brush.

"Hmmm. I dunno Davey." she said looking out at the water, smiling. She jumped down from her tree perch and put her hands on her hips, "But I'm gonna go find out!"

The girl raced off to the beach, the boys right behind her, stopping just before they reached the water. Jenna stripped off her shoes and socks and walked into the water. It was spring and the water was just starting to warm up.

"Its still a tad bit chilly. I dunno if you, David, a swimmer can handle it being all half naked and such, the waves are goin pretty hard too... you might not make it. Buuuuut its the perfect situation for a surfer." she teased as she grabbed her shoes and socks and ran back, around the McColly house and to her own.

The boys could see her disappear off into the house to go get her swim suit on and grab her surfboard. They both laughed a little bit. Ron backed up from the water a bit, staring at it intently as if it were going to come and swallow him up. David on the other hand stepped a bit closer, the water making a splashing noise against his boots. He knelt down and felt the water, Jenna wasn't wrong. It'd be a few days before he could swim in the ocean. At least Jenna wore a bit more when she surfed, then when he swam.

The trio's interests had always been this way. Since they were little, Ron and David had always loved swimming, but more so swimming together then anything else. Jenna on the other hand had always had a thing for surfing. She was the average California girl stereotype. She was tan, with a nice body, and long blonde hair (whether it was fake or not, she was still blonde), and a love for surfing. Whether the activities they did in it were different or not, the three of them grew up in the water, and more specifically in the water together.

David looked back at Ron, who carried a look of fear. David frowned, and walked back to Ron, pulling him a bit further from the water. He put his hands on his shoulders, staring him directly in the eyes.

"Are you okay? Do you wanna go inside?" he asked.

Ron shook his head, more as if he were shaking of the feeling instead of answering. Then he smiled and sat down on the sand.

"I'm okay, David," he reassured, "It's just... the ocean..." Ron shook his head at the thought, "I prefer pools."

David nodded smiling, he sat down next to Ron throwing an arm around his boyfriend and giving him a kiss on the cheek.

"Well hopefully it'll warm up soon and we can use that beauty behind your house," David gestured with his head to the back of the McColly house, "And even when it is warm, I promise I won't leave you alone on this beach. If I get in the ocean it'll only be so Jenna has someone to practice with."

Ron smiled and nodded, taking David's other hand in both of his and pressing a light kiss to his knuckles, making David smile even wider. Ron didn't like the ocean, he had a fairly good reason, too. He didn't mind looking at it, though, as long as he wasn't to close to the water. Honestly where they were sitting now was kind of pushing his limit, but he'd be okay as long as David was here. As long as David was holding him, keeping him safe.

Around then Jenna came back. She carried her surfboard and dove into the water. The boys sat on the beach and watched her serf. She was the best surfer they'd ever seen and in their eyes the best in the world. She'd won just as many surfing competitions as they had in swimming. Jenna was the reason they even liked surfing. Even though they may not like to actually surf themselves, they enjoyed watching the sport.

They all had fun yelling at each other, and watching the girl surf until the sun went down. To be honest the three of them hadn't had many doubts about moving out here as crazy as it seemed. They knew it was going to be far away and very different, but they'd have each other no matter what and that all they needed. After all that's all they'd ever needed before. Today just proved to them that they were right. Nothing mattered, they'd be fine here because they had each other.

__ __ __

  
The weekend was made up of adjustment. Everyone was getting used to the new houses and the new schedules. The trio ventured into the city a few times, collecting a few stares from people passing by. They assumed mostly because of Ron. They probably didn't see that many people with as many freckles as he had around here.

It passed quickly however and Monday came crashing in. This would bring a whole new aspect to living here, School. First of all they had to wear uniforms. That was something that was very new to them. They'd always gone to public school, were yes there was a dress code, but thats nothing like a uniform.

Ron once packed and dealing with insults from his very mature adult sister on how he looked, met up with his friends in front of the Miles' home. He walked up to the door and knocked a few times, entering after hearing a shout from Jenna for him to come in. Jenna and David were in the living room, packing their bags full of supplies they might need. To be honest though, none of them quite knew what to pack. Once they were both satisfied with the things they'd packed, and their mother fussed with their uniforms for a few minutes, the group was ready to leave.

David climbed into the driver's seat, Ron into the passengers, and Jenna into the back of David's old van and they headed off. It would be a long while before they hit any sign of town and it would be nice. The drive off the property, through the forest was a fairly long one, but a very beautiful one. The greenery spread out around them, thick and lush as could be. Once they reached the main road past the gate, which Ron got out and opened, it wasn't quite as thick but they were still surrounded by by forest on either side of the slightly wider road. It was about twenty more minutes before they reached the school. Once there, and informed on where to go, they would go their separate ways. Jenna to her second-year class and Ron and David to their third-year classes.

When lunch time rolled around they all met up again. Jenna still the rambling ball of energy she always was. David talking in when he could, cutting Jenna off at times wanting to get the word in about his day so far. It wasn't until they'd sat down that they realized Ron had remained completely silent the entire time.

"So, uh... how was your day so far Ronnie?" Jenna urged.

Ron looked up at them. The was leaned against a tree and had his arms crossed tight on his chest. He didn't respond to Jenna's question other then an exhausted sigh.

David frowned, "Really that bad?" he asked.

Ron gave another sigh before uncrossing his arms and using them to position himself in a more up-right manner against the tree.

"I don't know why I expected anything different honestly. They do it every time we go to a new school. They-" he began and was interrupted when the other two groaned.

"They put you in a special ed class." David finished for Ron, who noded in confirmation.

"Wow. That really pisses me off," Jenna stated shaking her head.

"Ha! Ya think?" Ron snapped, the annoyance gushing in his tone, lip quivering, "I'm NOT stupid! I'm NOT SPECIAL ED, I SWEAR I'M NOT AN IDIOT I CAN UNDERSTAND IT I CAN..."

Ron whipped tears from his eyes. He was yelling and crying and very upset. This wasn't his fault, he couldn't help this. He wasn't stupid or slow, he could most definitely understand things it just took a different method. David put an arm around him and rubbed his arm and shoulder whispering a calming "shh" into his ear.

"No baby, you're not an idiot. You have a serious learning disability. It's very common, too, a lot of people have dyslexia." David cooed to him.

"Yeah thats true. But most people can overcome it. Most dyslexics can still read far beyond their grade level. And-and I can barely read." Ron whined, still crying, "but I'm not dumb."

"That's right your not. And you can read, honey, you can read very well, you know that. You're getting better too. And it makes me SO FUCKING MAD when the schools do this. They put you in these special ed classes and it always has the same effect. It demolishes your self esteem and thats bull fucking shit, Ron, because you're very smart and you can read so good and you always try so hard and urgh."

David's heart pounded. What right did these school board assholes have to put his boyfriend through this. Every single time they put him through this, it was always the same. What was the excuse they always used? Oh right. "He does have a disability, that makes him special. His test scores are consistently low. His grades could be higher, he's barely average." Fuck that. Ron's grades were spectacular at Lincoln.

Lincoln Middle School was the best god damn school they'd ever been too. Living in New York for two years was one of the best things for Ron's grades. The teachers there actually understood him. They never made him take notes, they never made him read the board in front of the class, they never forced their learning methods on him, and most importantly they never labeled him. They let him learn his own way. He listened to lectures, he practiced his reading, he took oral tests and exams, and he was happy. He got all A's on his report card one quarter. That school knew how to teach a kid. A normal kid, with a normal disability.

David shook his head. Ron was staring at him, Jenna too, both with wide eyes. Rarely did anyone ever hear David get angry, it wasn't in his nature. Ron took David's hand in both of his, rubbing circles on the top of it with his thumb.

"It's okay David, " Ron started, clearing his throat, "I'll call my dad after lunch and he'll get me put in a proper class. It's the last year we have to deal with this kind of thing anyway."

David looked up at Ron. He let out a sigh and squeezed his hand. He closed his eyes and the other two could almost see the anger wash out of him.

"I guess you're right. Last year of school for the both of us. No point in letting it get to us right?" David tried. He forced a small laugh.

Jenna rubbed her hands against her legs, pressing down as hard as she could. It was a nervous tick she commonly did when she felt awkward. She didn't like dismal moods, it was against her existence as a ball of pony-tailed, happy energy. She looked up at the two of them and game a small smile.

"I dunno Ron," she began, almost cautiously, "You might wanna stay in this class. I'm sure you'd be the smartest one there!"

The boys both stared at her for a few seconds. Their faces were blank, no expression what so ever for a good 10 seconds. Just long enough for Jenna to begin to wonder if she shouldn't have said that. Then the two boys broke out in laughter. She let out a sigh of relief and smiled, glad to hear them both laugh again.The rest of lunch carried on much like that. Everyone telling bad jokes, and the others laughing at them probably more then they should have.

__ __ __

  
When the trio arrived home each went their separate ways. Jenna and David to their home, David to help their mother with dinner, and Jenna up to her room to video call her friends back home. Ron went to his own home, to be ambushed by Ashley with a camera. Once recovered from the several flashes, Ron blinked a few times and shook his head. Then he frowned at the cheeky smile the tall brunette wore in front of him.

"The hell was that?" he asked, pushing past her to set his bag down on the ground and flop himself down on the sofa.

"Just wanted to make sure I have plenty of pictures of you in that uniform. In case I ... need them some day." she said taping the top of her camera with her nimble little fingers.

Ron rolled his eyes, "Well good luck finding a use for them. I'm not embarrassed by the uniform. It's not much different then something I'd wear to curch. The only thing mildly embarrassing about it is the stupid polka-dotted tie," he stated as he flapped the tie between his fingers.

Ashley shrugged, setting the camera down and slunked down on the couch next to Ron.

"So how was your day, baby bro?" she asked, crossing her legs.

Ron shrugged, "Eh, I mean same as any other transfer day. I got put in a special ed class, I cried about it, Dave got mad, Jenna cheered us both up, and I sucked it up the rest of the day."

"Tch, figures. Why would I expect any different?"

"So is dad home?"

"Not yet. He's at work with mom."

"Damn. Do you know when he'll be home?"

"In about an hour, why?"

"So I can tell him to call the school and fix it."

Ashley nodded, she was silent for a while then she grew that smirk she wore so often, "SO like does it turn you on?"

Ron's head snapped to look at her, "What?"

"Like when David gets all mad about people hurting you? Doesn't that make you feel all warm and hot?" she continued to tease.

Ron's face grew bright red, "N-no! I mean... I think it's sweet but I don't like... get turned on."

Ashley squinted at him, "I think you do."

"I DO NOT!" Ron yelled, throwing a couch pillow at his sister.

"But for real, Ronnie, what does get you fired up about him? I mean the guys the biggest, clumsiest, dork I think any of us have ever met," she inquired, her chin resting in her hand, head tilted to the side curiously.

Ron rolled his eyes, face still flushed a bright red, "I don't know it's not really something he tries at. It's just... like when he flips his hair from his forehead after swimming... and when he looks over at me with those green eyes and that smirk... water droplets rolling off his lips... an-and they glide down his chin and drip from his hair... his pretty black hair..." Ron trailed off, his eyes half lidded and mouth agape, nearly watering.

Ashley laughed and he looked over at her, snapping out of it.

"WHAT?! YOU ASKED!" he shoved at her with his elbow.

"Yeah I know but like. What your saying is that when HES in the water YOU'RE the one who gets wet," she continued to tease.

Ron's blush grew darker, spreading to his ears, realizing that, yeah he basically did say that. "S-SHUT UP!!" he demanded, covering his face in his hands right after, "Why do you always pick on me?" he whined through a covered face.

Ashley chuckled, but then sighed and rubbed his back. "Honestly, RonRon, it's cause I'm jealous."

"Huh? Jealous of what?!" he asked, bringing his face up in genuine confusion.

"I'm jelly cause my 18 year old little brother has a more active sex life then I do at age 22. Therefore my solution is to shame him. Embarrass him. Tease him! All in good fun though because jealous as I may be I'm happy for him," she stated. She gave Ron an honest smile this time and gave a few pats to his back before retracting her arm from it.

Ron looked over at her and smiled. "Thank you," he began, "and you'll find someone someday too, Ash, I'm sure of it."

The two smiled at each other and laughed at how sappy they were being. Then Ron went up to his room to play video games and wait for his dad to come home. He'd probably text David later.

__ __ __

  
 **To: David <3**  
hey david?

 **From: David <3**  
hmm?

 **To: David <3**  
guess what

 **From: David <3**  
wat babe?

 **To: David <3**  
my dad got my class changed  
we're gonna be int he same clas

 **From: David <3**  
thats gr8 bby!  
that means i get to show everybody  
my super hot bf

 **To: David <3**  
if u embarass me tomorrow dave  
i sw ear to god

 **From: David <3**  
u swear wat  
wattchu gonna do  
hm ron  
wattchu gonna do

 **To: David <3**  
ill brea k up w/ u

 **From: David <3**  
waaat D:  
no u wouldnt  
u lov me to much

 **To: David <3**  
ok maybe  
but id still be mad

 **From: David <3**  
ok i wont say anythin  
but if anyone starts hittin on u  
ill mess em up  
ur MY bby  
<3

 **To: David <3**  
shh  
ur bein stupi d  
no ones gonn a hit on me  
i th ink everyone here  
thins i have the chicke pox

 **From: David <3**  
lol  
no but u hot tho  
like super hot  
and ur all mine  
<3 <3

 **To: David <3**  
quit it

 **From: David <3**  
quit wat

 **To: David <3**  
bein lame  
with ur dumb  
<3s

 **From: David <3**  
no  
i thought u liked those  
<3

 **To: David <3**  
i do  
<3  
but stop ur la me

 **From: David <3**  
<3  
<3

 **To: David <3**  
stoooop  
igotta go to bed  
n ight loser  
ily <3

 **From: David <3**  
i lov u to ronron  
sleep well bby  
<3

  
__ __ __

  
"Did you sleep well?" David asked, a slight laugh in his voice.

Ron nodded, "I'm still asleep, to be honest," he said through a yawn.

"I can see that," David chuckled, "You didn't comb your hair today, and I'm not letting you leave here looking like that!"

David grabbed Ron by the arm and pulled him along in the direction of his room's bathroom. A moan of objection came from Jenna.

"Nooo we don't have time. It takes you forever to start the van up and we can't waste the time it takes to do that on Ron's hair... even if it is a disaster." she complained.

David dug his hand down into his pocket and pulled out his keys and separated the one for the van from his house keys, and threw it to her.

"Well then take our stuff and go get the van started, we'll be there in a second," he said, pulling Ron off out of sight, who was to tired to agree or disagree with anything.

Jenna shrugged and took everyone's book bags and headed off for the garage. She tossed the keys up in the air and caught them back in her hands again, humming happily. She was proud that her brother finally trusted her to start the van. When he first got the van she wasn't even allowed to ride in the front seat, but slowly he was trusting her more with "his baby." Jenna never understood why he called it that, the van was a peice of shit. It was rusty, it took forever to start up, it's seats had holes worn in them, and the floor had stains on it. The only answer she could figure was that David had worked hard to pay for it. He didn't use any of the money mom had given him, he got a job over the summer and worked before swim practice just so that he could buy that van and fix it up after.

In the house, Ron sat on the edge of the bathtub as his boyfriend furiously combed the tangles out of his thick, orange hair. It was longer and thicker on the top then in the back or on the sides, and his bangs got in his face a lot, but it still looked good. When it was combed that was. David got the tangles all out and set Ron's bangs right so that they weren't in his eyes and patted his shoulder when he was satisfied. He gave a quick kiss to Ron's cheek before telling him he was "aaaallll dooone."

David then grabbed Ron's arm again, pulling him along with him as they ran to get in the van. Jenna had moved herself to the passenger's seat, everyone's bags in the back, which is where Ron crawled in. He was fine with that because he used his mostly empty bag as a pillow as he napped all the way to school.  
__ __ __

  
"David! I hope you know that you have the worlds greatest little sister!" Jenna boomed when the two boys arrived at their lunch spot.

"Is that so?" David asked, crossing his arms, "in the whole world? That's a pretty bold claim, Jen."

"Whatcha got there, Jenna?" Ron asked, gesturing to the rolled up piece of paper the girl had clenched between her hands.

"Ooooh nothing," she said tilting her head away from them, then eagerly bringing it back to look at them, a bright, wide, ear-to-ear smile, "Just a poster about the Iwatobi Swimming Club." she stated nonchalantly, unrolling the paper in front of the boys.

Both boys heads snapped up at her immediately, their faces filled with excitement. Ron reached up and snatched the paper from her. Sure enough, the paper was in bright colors, and had in a small, fancy font across the top "The Iwatobi Swimming Club," below that in big bold letters it read "Now accepting new members!" under that was the information on where to sign up.

"A swimming club?!" Ron exclaimed, perking up.

Jenna and David smiled at each other and then at him, as the freckled boy oggled over the poster. Ron didn't get excited over many things anymore. The only things that ever got him really excited anymore were dates with David, Jenna's surfing competitions, and swimming. Ron and David had shared the same dream from the time they were little, to compete in the Olympics, and eventually go pro in swimming. The boys always looked for a swim team to be on where ever they went. The community swim teams in San Diego and Chicago, the Middle School swim team in New York, the High School team in Los Angeles. Now this school had a swim team too? This was fantastic.

"That's great Jenna! Where'd you find out about it?" David asked, looking over Ron's shoulder to see the paper himself.

"Well there was this cute little blonde boy in my class handing them out to everyone as we left the class room. I was just going to throw it away with out looking at it, but the kid looked so excited that I didn't have the heart to do it in front of him. So I actually looked at it on my way over here, and then I may or may not have ran the rest of the way over just to show it to you." she said, slightly blushing.

David smiled at her, as she finally sat down next to them. He leaned over to give her a quick hug.

"I guess you are a pretty good little sister," he said with a defeated sigh, he was joking though, he already thought of her as the best little sister a guy could ask for.

Jenna knew that too, as she smiled, "Pretty good?" she teased, "I'm the best." she flipped one of her pony tails off her shoulder with her hand, slightly tiltiing her nose up.

"Says to come by any day after school to sign up. We should head over after class tomorrow," Ron said, looking with big, bright brown eyes up at David.

He of course couldn't say no, even if he had wanted to, "Yeah sounds fun. You can meet us there Jenna, and we'll drive you home after."

The blonde nodded, causing the end of her long ponytails to fall over her shoulders again.

"Looks like we'll have to help you find a good surfing competition here now," David said, leaning head on Ron's shoulder, who still was stairing happily at the paper.

"What'd ya mean?" she asked, "I didn't tell you about it to expect anything in return. It wasn't really that big of a deal."

"Yeah but if we get in, then we have something to do during spring and over the summer, and we'll stay sharp in our sport and that's something very important. It's important for you too, Jenna, you need to get in at least a few little local competitions. Give your reputation a good polishing before you hit some serious competitions. You gotta remember no one knows who you are here, and I'd hate to see you get one as the new girl who won on pure luck, cause that's not you, you've worked hard back home, you gotta show people you'll work hard here too." David reminded her, stressing the importance of it with his tone.

Jenna knew David didn't get serious that often, normally only when it came down to sports. Jenna tried to motivate and educate her brother and Ron in swimming, and David did his best to manage and coach his sister in return, she appreciated that.

"Yeah, I know. I gotta get back into training hard too, I've softened up over the winter, gotta get tight again," she said, sitting up straighter and patting her stomach.

David gave a small laugh, "Yeah that too."

__ __ __

  
"You know, Ronnie, we have a golden opportunity here." David stated. His arms outstretched, right elongated in front of Ron, who then made a face of disgust, pressing his finger to David's wrist, pushing his arm down as if it were diseased.

"Is that so," he mused, "and what would that opportunity be?"

David turned to Ron, his face lit up with excitement, "We can be anyone we want now! Like anyone dude."

"I don't understand."

"Well you see my dear Ron, we have been put in the unique position of being the new kids, at a school on the other side of the planet. No one here knows a thing about us, and probably know very little about are country as well. We could say anything about ourselves! Say we were anyone and no one here would be the wiser!"

Ron watched David as they walked, his hands in his pockets. He took in all David's animated motions as he rambled on about this "golden opportunity." He couldn't help but smile at what a dork this kid was. He couldn't help but smile at how much he loved this dork.

"I mean think about it RonRon, really think about it. I could say my names Johnny Appleseed for fucks sake, and no one'd even bat an eye lash."

Ron laughed as they approached their destination.

"Well you can have fun putting that on your club application. I can hear them now. 'Next up to try out for the swim club, Mr. Johnny fuckin Appleseed.' Idiot."

David pouted and elbowed Ron's arm, who then started laughing, which then made David smile. Both boys smiles lightly faded as they arrived at the pool grounds. A small building by the pool with a blue door was where they were to enter. Ron hesitantly opened the door, David behind him a bit, hands on Ron's shoulders as he used him almost like a shield.

"Um. Excuse me? Is this were we sign up for the swim club?" he asked as they entered.

Just about everyone there turned around to look at them all at once. They all had looks of shock like they couldn't beloved they were there. For a moment the pairs' confidence in being in the right place wavered. That is until the short blonde boy bounded up to them full of energy. A large pearly smile accompanied a pair of glimmering pink eyes on his small round face. He was quite cute and they assumed that this was the boy Jenna had talked about, the one handing out posters.

"Did you just say you wanted to join the swim club?!" he asked, voice full of awe.

By now the others had gathered around them, huddled behind the blonde boy, watching in disbelief. No wonder people didn't sign up for this club, these people were kinda weird.

"Uh yeah... so do we fill out an application or something I dont-" Ron began, stuttering a bit before he was interrupted.

"Finally!! New members! I knew people would come, and see we didn't even have to get naked, Rei-chan." the boy's voice bounced of the walls of the room, he was loud with excitement and it fit his face quite well.

"DON'T SAY IT LIKE I WAS THE ONE WHO SUGGESTED IT, I WASN'T!!" a slightly taller boy, around Ron's height, spoke up, and they assumed this was the "Rei-chan," that had been addressed.

He had blue hair and red glasses, his eyes were a purplish color and his face was shaped a bit longer. His eyes carried a look that along with the tone of his voice, indicated that he was quite done with the little blonde boy's shit. They wondered just how much shit he took from the kid, with how done he looked.

"We do have applications that you'll need to fill out, and you'll be expected to show us how well you swim too." a girl with bright red hair, pulled back in a ponytail said smiling, pulling them from their thoughts.

She extended her hand to the boys. They both eased up a bit and each in turn shook her hand. They each tried their best to show smiles, though the stares they were still mostly receiving was freaking them out a bit.

"I'm Gou Matsuoka, the club manager, but you can call me Kou. I'm going to go get your applications, I'll be right back," she said as she walked off to rummage around some stuff in the back of the room.

The girl had a lot of bounce to her step, she seemed full of energy. It reminded them both a bit of Jenna and that calmed them even more.

A taller, brunette boy, twords the back of the group stepped forward a bit. He wore a soft smile and kind eyes and his whole essence oozed caring and sweetness.

"So what are your names?" he asked, breaking the silence that had started to build.

David stood up a bit taller, releasing Ron's shoulders and coming out of his slight hiding spot behind him. When David was at full height, he was around the same height as the brunette in front of them.

"I'm Ronald McColly, but everyone calls me Ron, and this is my b-" Ron cut himself off, unsure of whether or not he should reveal that he and David were dating yet, mainly for the cause of possible rejection that could follow with the knowledge of this fact, "my friend, David Miles, we just transferred here from Los Angeles, California." he finally finished.

David game a small smile. He was a bit hurt that Ron introduced him as just his friend but he understood his reasoning behind it. In fact the reason they were not accepted into the Johnson High Swim Team in Tennessee in the beginning of 9th grade(they went to two different high schools in 9th grade), was the fact that they were dating. Their sexuality wasn't one that was commonly accepted and even though they got the vibe that it wouldn't matter here, they didn't feel like risking it.

"Wow, you're here from all that way? What brings you two all the way out here to Japan?" the boy asked, a bit taken back. The answer seemed to shock the rest of the group as well.

"Our parents," David answered this time, "Ron's mother runs a very successful restaurant chain. She has locations all over America and a few in Canada, but she wanted to expand further so she packed up her family and moved out here. I'm out here because my mother is Ron's mom's head chef and partner."

"Wow thats so cool!" the blonde answered, his eyes sparkling up at them.

The two boys smiled down at the enthusiasm the boy was so filled with. The enthusiasm again reminded them of Jenna.

"It is," the brunette continued, "Well, I'm Makoto Tachibana, Captain of the team. We're really glad you two came to join, we really were in need of new members," he stated laughing a bit nervous, rubbing the back of his neck.

Ron chuckled a bit, "Well we're glad to join."

"I'm glad to hear that!" he said, "This is the rest of our team, Haruka Nanase, our Vice Captain." he gestured to a boy with a pretty blank expression. He had blue eyes and straight black hair, he was one of the ones that had been staring at them so intently, "And this is Nagisa Hazuki, and Rei Ryuugasaki. Our club's Treasurer and Secretary." he gestured to the blonde boy, and then the one with the glasses, who both smiled at them when addressed.

At that point Kou returned with a small slip of paper and two larger ones, she handed them out to them and David accepted them from her.

"Those are your applications in the back, one for each of you. We normally would require you to show us your mus- I mean your swimming skills as well before we officially accept you but it's too cold still to swim outside so the school board wont let us fill the pool up. On the slip of paper there, though," she gestured to it, "is the address of the place we've been allowed to the indoor pool to for practicing during the cold season, so if you meet us there after school tomorrow you can show us what you got!" she stated excitedly.

The two boys nodded excitedly. They waved and said their goodbyes to the team before leaving. Telling them about how they needed to pick up Jenna and take her home, and so she would probably join them tomorrow. The team seemed to have no to complaints.

On the ride home they told Jenna all about the encounter with the team. Jenna agreed from their description that Nagisa was indeed the boy who had givin her the poster. Jenna seemed happy to accompany them to the meet the next day. She was excited to see her brother and her friend so excited about something again. Honestly all three of them couldn't wait until tomorrow.


	2. Meeting New People

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (wow i suck at naming chapters)  
> The three finally meet the guys from Samezuka.

Pushing passed the grey and white colored blurs that stocked the hall ways, and clenching the strap of her bag tight, Jennifer Miles made her way to her class room. Her form was oddly dull and sullen, attributes rarely ever used in discription of her. However this was the least favorite part of the young blonde's week. Monday mornings were horrible in her mind and not in the way most teenagers saw it. Jenna wasn't dismal on Mondays just for the fact that it meant they had to return to school or wake up early. In fact Jenna was quite the contrary, she was naturally an early riser and enjoyed having a common routine to stick to. Mondays to Jenna felt heavy to her, they hung in her, physically bringing her down.

The weekend the boys joined the swim team was fantastic. She made friends and she got to see her brother happy and this was all she could ask for. On saturday was practice and on sunday the trio had hung out at their parents opening restaurant in town. They made themselves useful though by helping out with moving things and such, and though it was labor and tiring it was fun to be with the whole family(that and sitting at the tables outside, enjoying Annabell's cooking on breaks was very enjoyable) . The weekends were in fact so fantastic now that Mondays felt much like sobering feeling of coming down from a high. The sollum feeling of knowing now she had to wait another whole week before the euphoria of friend and family filled weekends would fill her again.

However when Jenna finally entered the class room, her spirits were lifted by a familiar voice.

"Jenna-chan!!" a now quite familiar, sparky blonde boy called from the back of the class room.

Jenna waved back and quickly made her to him. Her face now held a smile, like normal Jenna.

"Hello boys," she said happily, "I almost forgot I have this class with you two."

The two boys smiled at her. Rei sat down at his desk, Nagisa taking his usual seat behind him. He pulled the desk next to him slightly closer with his foot.

"Sit next to me Jenna!" he pushed, excitedly.

Jenna seemed a bit flattered, "You really want me to sit next to you?" she asked hesitantly, a weary smile on her face.

The blonde held a wide bright smile, and nodded vigorously. Jenna then obliged and sat down in the desk he had moved. She set her yellow-ish backpack on the ground beside her and crossed her legs one tightly over the other in her desk. She turned to look at the two boys she'd sat near, the ends of her long ponytails falling over her shoulders when she did so.

"So did you two have a nice Sunday?" she asked, hands folded on her desk.

She half listened to Nagisa as he rambled on about his Sunday, which he in fact spent with Rei. She watched their expressions as they talked, the way they looked at each other. These two were obviously good friends, great friends even. The way the smaller one would milk reactions out of the taller one was fun to watch. Just a slight adjustment in tone, or glance, or a different angle of the corners of his mouth when he smiled pulled different reactions out of Rei. Those reaction varied from a chuckle to a blush, to yelling at him telling him that wasn't right, or it didn't happen like that. It was honestly quite cute and it was hard for Jenna to believe these two weren't married.

Jenna eventually began to input about her own Sunday and the events that took place at the restaurant with Ron and David. Nagisa would cut in sometimes to comment about what she'd said. The three talked together and laughed until class started and Nagisa and Jenna may have been caught flicking a rubberband back and forth at each other during class.

After that day's fun events Jenna felt less down on Mondays. Now she had friends to talk to on Monday too, a whole new type of fun to look forward to. Each week day in fact was a lot more tolerable now, and she'd be perfectly happy as long as they stayed like this.

**__ __ __**

 

"Ya know, Jenna-chan, things would be a loooot less boring for you after school if you just joined the swim team. You could get in the water with us and you wouldn't have to just sit on the benches and watch." Nagisa urged, poking Jenna's arm with his elbow.

"Well maybe I like just sitting on a bench and watching you how 'bout that, eh? Did ya think about that?" she said, cocking her head to the right, and standing up a bit taller.

She attempted to make herself seem as tall as she could, making a taunting "whattcha-gotta-say-to-that" face and holding it as long as she could before she just laughed. Nagisa laughed too but mostly at the face she was making.

"I'm serious, Jenna! You should officially join," he pushed again.

"Swimmings just not my thing, Nagisa. I mean hell I don't even know how to do any of the strokes! When I'm in a pool I kinda just float around and don't drown." she said shrugging a bit.

"Well you have to know how to swim to surf don't you?"

"You have to be able to paddle your board, but that doesn't even involve your legs, just your arms. I don't think it really counts as 'swimming' really."

"What about when you wipe out don't you have to be able to swim to shore or to your board?"

"Well yeah but its not like I'm gonna freakin swim the butterfly to my board. You just kinda make your way over to it I guess. Again like I said it's more of just a skill-full not drowning."

"But Jennaaaa-"

"Nagisa if you ask me again I'll pop you one," she said raising a fist.

He whined and rubbed his head on her shoulder, "Don't be mean Jenna-chaan."

She giggled and ruffled his hair, "I just don't have the time to be learning and trying to compete in swimming if I want to keep up my surfing career. Surfing is very important to me and I can't let swimming become a distraction," she said, sounding nicer this time, but still stern and serious.

She looked over to see a pout on the boys face and she sighed.

"Don't be like that, I'll still be there for practice everyday! It's not like I have a choice you know. I don't feel like walking all that way from the school to my house!" she joked and that brought his smile back.

 

__ __ __

 

Jenna sat outside the unopened "M & M Dinner" that was busy with movers going in and out. Painters towered on ladders outside and people on the roof messed with wires that would allow the big sign baring the restaurant's name to light up in pink and blue flashing colors at night. In side her brother and his boyfriend were helping their mothers go over resumes and applications for cooks and servers.

Jenna however sat outside with a nice warm cup of coffee from the coffee shop down the street. She held a magazine in her hands and she skimmed over articles that interested her. She hummed lightly, pulling her leather jacket around her as a cool breeze blew by her. It blew her magazine down in her one hand so that it fluttered against the table, restrained from flying away with the had still holding it. She looked up a bit then, some blue hair across the street catching her eye. She folded her magazine and tucked it down into her bag.

Sure enough when she gave the sight her full attention she saw two familiar figures exiting the coffee shop she'd been in earlier. She smiled to see the two boys walking amongst the people on the sidewalk across the road. She brought her feet down from the spot they had been resting on, on the table. This made all four legs of her chair hit the ground as she prepared to stand up, go over and say hello to them. What stopped her though, halfway through the street, was slightly unexpected.

The boys stopped and faced each other. They exchanged smiles and held hands then they kissed. Wait, what? Had she seen that correctly? They just kissed? Jenna smiled, devilishly as she understood that she indeed was seeing this correctly. She quickened her pace to make it across the street to them before their kiss ended. Neither boy saw her approach for they both had their eyes closed. She was gonna have fun with this.

"Helloooo Boooys." she cooed, still holding that devilish smile.

The couple both opened their eyes immediately and pulled away from each other, blushing a bright red. Jenna smiled wider.

"J-Jenna! H-how long have you been standing there ...exactly?" Rei stuttered.

"Long enough." she answered sounding as vague as she could.

It was silent for a while, the boys looking very uncomfortable.

Nagisa rubbed the back of his neck, giving a nervous laugh before asking why Jenna was in town.

"I'm hanging out over at my parent's restaurant," she said pointing to the place across the street, "but more importantly how long have you two been dating. And when were you planning on telling me?" she asked, placing her hands on her hips.

They both glanced at each other awkwardly. They looked slightly guilty and just stuttered out a bunch of "uh"s and "well um"s. That was when Jenna burst out laughing. They both shot their eyes up from where they had been trained on the ground to look at her.

"You guys are so dumb. What are you all flustered about. So I saw you kiss, what of it. Your my friends it's not like I care if you're dating. I think it's kinda cute actually." she said, crossing her arms a bit loosely.

"S-so it doesn't weird you out that we're gay?" Rei asked a bit shocked at how natural this seemed to Jenna.

"Pfffft." the blonde girl laughed even harder, "No! Of course not.Why would you think that?"

Nagisa rubbed his neck nervously again, "Well it's just that... you're well... you're-"

"I'm American?" Jenna finished for him, looking somewhat amused.

They both nodded kind of guiltily, not meeting her eyes. "I guess we Americans do have a pretty bad reputation with acceptance don't we?" she agreed, but then playfully punched both of them in their arms, "But hey I'm not like that. I mean come on! How could you think that me of all people would judge you for being gay?! My brother's gay for pete's sake!" she exclaimed, her arms spread out on either side.

The two seemed a bit taken off by that.

"Wait... David's gay?" Rei inquired seeming a bit puzzled.

"Yeah," Jenna nodded as if it where the most obvious thing in the world, "he's dating Ron!"

That seemed to completely blow the boys minds. They both stuttered for a while, neither really forming an actual word. It was more like they were both just making noise as if their mouths were no longer connected to their brains.

"B-but," Rei finally managed to choke out, "when we all first met Ron introduced David as just his friend. They always seemed to have a very close relationship but I never would have assumed that they were... well dating."

Jenna thought about what he'd just said for a moment, quickly understanding the boys intentions behind keeping their relationship secret. She brought the couple over with her to the table she had been sitting at in front of the restaurant, telling them she'd explain once they sat down.

"Well Ron and David have been 'dating' since they were like 9. They used to be very open about the fact that they liked each other when they were younger too. Mainly because they weren't old enough to understand that to most people their relationship wan't ... well 'normal.' They stopped openly expressing their relationship in their last year of Middle School, which in America is 8th grade. That was the point at which they finally understood that other kids were making fun of them, and they were able to see the looks that the teachers gave them. So they hid their relationship from then on. They sat on opposite ends of the class room. They wouldn't talk to each other at swim practice. They didn't even really treat each other as friends. That is until they escaped view of the public eye, or well their peers I should say. Before school, after school, over weekends, during summer. The two would hug, and laugh, and hold hands, kiss even." Jenna paused in her story.

Her face held a small smile, a content one, relishing in the memory of the couple's child hood. She glanced up for a moment, realizing her view had been fixed on the table. She definitely had her friends' attention with her story. Their faces both held interest in her words. Her smile grew a bit wider before fading away completely as she continued.

"This all happened while we were living in New York. It was devastating to them. They had both had such a good two years there, Ron's grades were picking up even. But the shame just brought them down. It really impacted their summer, they quit talking to their friends, they quit the swim team they were on. They didn't even talk to me for a long while... they just stayed together, alone, in their own little world where no one could hurt them..." Jenna paused again to look in the direction of the restaurant where her family was, where they were happy.

"Things changed when our mothers decided to move again," she started back up, "It lifted the boys spirits to know they'd get a fresh start. They could keep people from judging them. They where finally becoming happy and started talking to me again. We moved to Tennessee, a southern state. We settled in twords the end of summer and as the school year came closer we could see the panic set in. Fear coated the boys, they knew they weren't allowed to show their love for each other anymore. They couldn't reveal that they were together. They tried so hard too... to keep people from knowing... to keep people out... They even tried joining the swim team at that school...They got denied entry though. It was because one of the members caught them kissing off campus. He spread the word that Ron and my brother where gay and they were quickly ostracized.They weren't allowed to sit near any of the kids in the cafeteria, they made them sit outside far away so that they, 'wouldn't spread the gay'. They weren't allowed in any clubs and they where definitely not allowed to be on the swim team... About halfway through the year, our moms closed down the location in Tennessee and sold it. They didn't want their kids starting High School in such a discriminating area. Thats when we moved back to California. In L.A. it was finally different. People didn't care that David and Ron were dating. Well I mean people cared, and people picked on them, but more people where accepting of them. They finally joined a swim team again and they actually made friends. We lived like that, happily for a long time."

Jenna let out a sigh. Her story was finally finished, and she now bore a sad expression.

"So then they didn't tell us they where dating because they didn't trust us? They thought we'd be mean to them like their old friends?" Nagisa asked, trying not to seem hurt but not very effectively.

Jenna drummed her fingers on the table, thinking of a way to word what she wanted to say. She finally settled on it, apparently as she set her hand back in her lap and looked back up at her friends.

"When David and Ron told you guys that they were just friends... it wasn't personal. It wasn't because they don't trust you guys, and it wasn't to mislead you. It was because they're afraid... I mean... wouldn't you be?" she answered, her question rhetorical.

Nagisa and Rei both looked at each other, taking in Jenna's words. They understood what she was saying. They had been afraid afterall to tell Jenna that they were dating. They completely understood that fear and they sympathized with Ron and David.

"Um... and could you not mention anything about them to the others... I want Ron and David to come out on their own," she asked, timidly.

The boys both smiled at each other and then back at Jenna.

"Of course. We won't say anything, promise," Rei stated, enthusiastically drawing an x with his finger over his heart.

Nagisa nodded in agreement, then leaned on the table in closer to Jenna, "That is as long as you promise not to say anything about us to anyone."

Jenna giggled and brought her fingers to her lips moving them along her mouth like she was closing a zipper. The three laughed and talked about much more pleasant things after that and the day continued on nice. Jenna eventually invited the boys inside the incomplete restaurant to eat when her mother decided to test out the kitchen by making them all lunch. After they'd eaten David and Ron joined them outside, sitting and talking.

"So how long have you guys been out here with Jen?" David eventually asked.

"Only about an hour or so," Nagisa sighed, "It hasn't been that long really."

David nodded, "Well I'm sorry we didn't come out and join you sooner, we were inside working."

Ron scoffed, "More like I was working and you where watching."

David pouted and nudged Ron with his arm, "Don't say that, I helped... kinda."

"Mhm, sure you did. You helped make the crates of ingredients lighter. I swear do you ever get full?"

David smiled blissfully and shook his head. Ron rolled his eyes at him and smiled. They both where staring at each other smiling for a few moments before remembering that they were not alone. They both looked away from each other quickly, once they made this realization and made sure to not to make eye contact with anyone other than the ground.

"Loosen up love birds," Jenna instructed, giving Ron a nudge with her elbow and David a kick to the knee under the table.

They both looked at her like she was crazy for calling them that. They looked at her with expressions of utter betrayal.

"Don't look at me like that when I tell you to loosen up. They're gay too." she said gesturing her head in the direction of her classmates.

The two couples both looked at her. They bore very different expressions however. David and Ron held shocked expressions, expecting her to laugh or smile like she was joking. She didn't however. The other swimmer couple look at Jenna with small smiles. They where mainly to reassure her that what she had just said was okay, as long as it was just to David and Ron. They didn't want to keep something from them if it meant that their new friends would open up to them more. So in their minds it was okay for Jenna to tell her brother and his partner that they where not the only gay couple, just as long as she didn't tell anyone else.

David and Ron slowly turned their heads to look at Rei and Nagisa. Their faces searched the boys for confirmation of Jenna's statement. The couple merely smiled and nodded at them. Nagisa even went so far as to give Rei a peck on the cheek to prove it, only pulling a flustered reaction and a growing blush out of Rei.

Ron and David both relaxed. Relaxed being a gross understatement as the two both seemed to have just had a gigantic weight lifted off of them. Ron slouched his back a bit and leaned more into David, who placed an arm around his boyfriend. The two smiled at the other couple happily, blissfully even. David gave a loving kiss to Ron's cheek and Ron for once actually gave a completely genuine and at ease smile. This wasn't much but it was hope, hope for acceptance and that things would be okay.  
That's all the two really needed, and it was something that their friends felt proud to give them. Rei even stated what a beautiful couple they made, uplifting their spirits even more.

 

__ __ __

 

"DANA!!" Ron called, desperately after his baby niece, who had run off into the crowded out of excitement to get inside, "DANA GET BACK HERE!!!"

Ron's yelling after the little girl made people stare at him. He didn't blame them after all, he wasn't showing the most eloquent of babysitting skills, as well as he was screaming in English, a language not everyone spoke here, but was ultimately the only language the little girl spoke.

The small, red-headed, freckle covered girl stopped when she ran into something. A person's leg to be specific. She looked up to find a very tall, dark haired man with turquoise colored eyes. His hands where tucked in his pockets and his expression was dark. It scared the little girl immensely and she backed away, tears pricking the corners of her eyes. She muttered a very small "I'm sorry," before Ron showed up and scooped her up in his arms. She gripped at his jacked and buried her face in it.

Ron faced the tall intimidating man, who in fact was not really a full grown man but more of a guy his age. "I'm very sorry about that, she has a tendency to... run off." he stated sounding quite exhausted already.

The guy held the dark expression for a few moments, not that it really fazed Ron, he was not very easily intimidated. The guy's expression softened in an instant however and turned into a kind smile.

"It's fine, I can see how an event like this could get someone that excited." he said, smiling at the little girl who timidly stared up at him.

"Ron?"

He turned his head to where he heard his name. He smiled when he saw a familiar short, ponytailed red-head come bobbing up to him.

"Ron! What are you doing here?" she asked, seeming excited to see him.

He smiled and gestured his head twords Dana. "My neice wanted to come to 'Splash Fest'," he stated the name slightly dramatically, imitating the way the little girl had been saying it all day, "to compete in the kick board race. Also I heard from Jenna that the guys where competing in a relay today, so me and David wanted to come by to support the team."

"Aw that's nice of you! I didn't know you had siblings let alone a niece!"

"Yeah I have two older sisters, Dana here belongs to my oldest sister." he said shaking Dana a bit who giggled a little.

"Well she's very cute. Where is David by the way? I don't see him did he come with you or is he meeting you here?"

"Well he dropped us off but he has some things he has to drop off at the restaurant in town real quick, so he'll show up later. Before the race starts I'm sure."

The girl nodded before looking over her shoulder to see a few people (including the tall dark-expression guy from before) staring at her. She smiled back at them and then at Ron, grabbing at his wrist and pulling him inside further. That's when he caught sight of the rest of the team and they all greeted him. He introduced them to his niece and most of them made comments on how cute she was, and how much her and Ron looked alike.

Kou turned Ron around to face the other group of boys.

"Ron, this is my brother Rin," she gestured to a guy around his height and age, with red hair and eyes matching Kou's, the resemblance was definitely there, "his friends Sosuke," she motioned to the one Dana had run into, "and Nitori" she lastly pointed to a slightly shorter silver haired kid. He had a sweet round face and crystal blue eyes, with a beauty mark off the corner of his left eye. "and this is ... " she drew a blank when she looked at the guy in the white uniform with fiery red hair and golden eyes.

"Momotarou!" the boy exclaimed.

"Right... well um, guys this is Ron, he's a transfer student from America, him and his friend David just recently joined the team. Ron, these are the guys from Samezuka who'll be racing our team in the relay. As an unofficial event of course but still, we'll see who's school is better." Kou spoke back up winking in Ron's direction and he chuckled.

"Iwatobi of course," he stated as if it weren't even much of a thing to think about.

He glanced over at Dana and asked her who she thought would win and she raised her little arms up yelling, "Iwatobi!" as best she could. Both groups laughed at how cute the girl was. The Samezuka team left fairly soon, right after David had arrived and introductions where spread around again.

The kick board race was one of the first events. Dana was excited to find out that Makoto has siblings that would be in the race with her. The small girl had fun, even though she didn't win. She just wanted to swim and be "just like Uncle Ronnie!" Which everyone thought was adorable.

When the relay came around against team shark and team dolphin, Ron, David, Kou and little Dana cheered them on. The race was riveting and intense between the two teams, the strengths of each members being showcased quite impressively. The two boys took the opportunity to evaluate not just their competition but also their teammates. Other then a few times at practice the guys had never seen their own team's potential being fully displayed, and to be honest they were quite impressed.

When their team won the cheer squad congratulated them. Celebrating their victory, although no one could match the sheer joy the small, freckled, Dana expressed about the fact that her Uncle's team had won. It was not long after that, that David, Ron and Dana headed home.

David started up the van while Ron strapped his exhausted, sleeping, baby niece into her car seat before hopping in the front with his boyfriend. Ron looked over the dark haired boy while he focused on his mirrors, backing out of the parking spot he was in. The windows in the front were down and David's hair rustled with the light wind coming through. Ron bit his lip.

 _"Damn he looks so fucking cute..."_ he thought to himself, now fully gnawing on his lip.

Once they pulled out of the parking lot David remained looking mainly foreword again. He glanced at Ron, slightly. He then turned his head to look at him again. He smiled as Ron turned away quickly, blushing brightly at the fact that he'd been caught staring

"Ya like whattcha see, RonRon?" David teased.

"Shut up. You idiot." he grumbled, refusing to look at him.

David laughed, "You're too cute, baby."

Ron smiled this time, "Shut up, ...idiot." he said again, with a more shy tone this time.

 

__ __ __

 

"Thanks again for coming with me, Kou," Jenna stated, smiling.

The red head nodded, a smile on her face as well.

"It's no problem. I needed to come here today anyway." Kou answered.

"Hm? For what?"

"I'm buying... ingredients for the boys."

"Ingredients? In a sportswear store?"

"It's a protein powder."

"Sounds gross."

"To be honest it probably is, but you never know. It's worth a shot. I'll get a few different flavors, maybe ones less gross then the others."

The two girls laughed as they approached the store. Entering they both headed for the swimming department. What confused Kou, however, was when Jenna began to look at swimsuits in the men's department.

"Um... Jen, you know this is the men's section right?" she asked, her voice hushed as if trying not to embarrass her.

"Oh yeah I know. I always buy my bottoms from the men's department."

"But why?"

"Because! The girl's section is full of inefficient shorts and bikini bottoms. They look cute on the manikins, and for sitting around at the pool, but I'm an athlete, not a doll, and if I'm paying these prices for a swimsuit I'm going to make sure it's going to work well."

Kou nodded. That made sense to her. Even though she wasn't an athlete herself, she understood that as one you would want to buy something that allowed you to preform your best.

"Well, I'm going to go look for the things I need, I'll let you browse and meet back up with you in a few."

"Alright. I'm gonna just look here for a while. Its kinda hard to figure out the sizes, they're all different here..." Jenna mumbled, talking more to herself now.

Kou smiled at her sweet, but odd, foreign friend, before turning around and searching the isles for what she was after. However what she found was infact not protein powder, but an excited redhead running for her.

"GOOOOUUUUU-SAAAAAAAAN!!!!!" Momotarou yelled, waving his arms at her as he approached.

She seemed exhausted just looking at him.

"Do you remember me, Gou-san?!" he inquired, hands clasped together in excitement.

"Uuhmm, Mikoshiba...." she started, he nodded encouraging her to continue, "Kimotar-?"

"MOMOtarou! But you can call me Momo!" he corrected, before then rambling on about his interests and something about beetles.

He then continued to pester her about the swimsuits he picked out, however she was preoccupied by becoming aware of the fact that the majority of the Samezuka swim team was here, along with her brother, their Captain. While Momo buzzed around her a thought came to her mind.

"Hey, uh, Momo?" she asked, just before her brother was about to interrupt.

Momotarou stopped and gave her his attention. She smiled a small, cheeky smile.

"I'd like you to meet someone." she said, sounding sweet enough.

She then called out to Jenna, who she could see, looking through suits about a row away. Jenna turned to the sound of her name, and smiled at Kou who was waving her over. She made her way over to them quickly, slight running.

"Hey, did you need something?" she asked, looking at her friend with a large smile, her hands held together behind her back.

"No I just wanted to introduce you to someone. Jenna, this is Momotarou Mikoshiba. And the other three over there are Sousuke Yamazaki, Aiichirou Nitori, and my brother, Rin Matsouka." She stated, motioning to them accordingly.

Jenna smiled and gave a small wave, though the stare she was getting from one of the boys was grabbing her attention.

"Guys, Momo, this is Jenna. She's David's sister." she said.

The three behind Momo nodded, the girl's foreign appearance and accent now making sense. Momo himself however seemed to be having an issue forming his words, that was odd for someone who normally didn't stop talking. His stare was awe filled, and directed at Jenna.

"Y-you're... gorgeous!!" he awed.

Jenna blushed, brightly, a shy smile coming to her face. The other four around him didn't seem that surprised however.

As Jenna and Momo began to talk, their conversation becoming gradually louder and more excitement filled, Rin gave his younger sister a sly look.

"You knew that would happen didn't you?" he asked, lightly nudging her with his elbow.

"I don't know what you mean, onii-chan." she said, innocently, though her cheeky grin said other wise.

"So why were you here today?" he asked her.

She gave a small shrug, "Jenna was gonna go shopping for swimsuits and I needed to pick something up anyway so I figured I'd join her."

"Wait, Jenna's a swimmer too?"

"Oh, no. She's not a swimmer. She likes surfing."

"Oh. Well then why by swimming gear? Why wouldn't she be looking in the surf department, more importantly the womens surf department?"

"She says she likes the way the mens swimsuits fit. They help her improve her performance."

"Hm. Well whatever works for her."

"Kou!" Jenna called out.

The two turned their attention to her as she came up to them.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked, "I got the thing you were looking for."

"Oh! Thank you. Then yeah I guess I'm ready, as long as you are." she said, with a nod.

The two girls smiled at each other saying their goodbyes to the boys, Jenna giving a wink in Momo's direction. The boy had a large, blissful grin spread across his face.

"What are you smiling like that for, Momo-kun?" Nitori asked, giving him an odd look.

Momo held his arm out, there where pen marks on it.

"She gave me her number, she told me to call her." he cooed.

The boys all laughed, giving him small congratulations. And to be one hundred percent honest, Rin was just glad Momo had finally found someone else to fix on other then his sister. Although he couldn't say as though this would end up making David all that happy.

__ __ __

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little shorter then I would have liked it because I honestly had some trouble separating the end of Chapter 2, and the beginning of Chapter 3 so Chapter 2 ended up getting cut a little. Though that means Chapter 3 will probably be a little bit longer so that good. Um... hopefully I'll get chapter 3 out real soon, but I don't know because I just got back to school, so sorry in advance for late updates. But know they will come!!


	3. Getting to Know You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So this is mostly just a bunch of fluff about RonDavid and JenMomo. But also there is some angst. gomen.

"And he actually thought that I would hire him with a resume like that! The way he filled out that application, Jenna, I tell you some people. You wouldn't believe- eh... Jenna?! Are you even listening to me? Jenna!"

Jenna jumped, shocked from the sudden loud call of her name. She looked behind her to find her mother standing in the living room with her arms crossed. Jenna gave a weak smile.

"Uhm. Sorry mom, no I wasn't listening..." she apologized.

The tall, dark haired woman rolled her eyes and shook her head. She sat down next to her daughter on the couch. She ran her fingers through the long whiteish-gold locks of Jenna's ponytail.

"Who have you been talking to so intently on that phone? The past week or so you've been glued to that thing. Laughing, smiling, squealing even. Is it Nick? You've never reacted like that to his messages before." she inquired, confusion heavy in her voice.

"No mom not Nick. I don't text Nick, I Skype with Nick. He comes at a higher standard okay, my best friend is on a different level then the common folk." Jenna scoffed.

"Well sooorry for the ridiculous idea your highness. Please forgive me for my wrong doings." she stated, the sarcasm oozing from her voice.

Though Annabell still held a smile on her face. Even though she worked so often, she tried her damnedest to be a good mother. She remained close with her kids and their friends, making sure to always know what they were going through and who they were with. She felt she had to, she felt she owed it to them what with the absence of a father in their lives.

Jenna laughed at her mother. She then smiled really wide and held her phone to her heart. She had a slight pink dusting on her cheeks.

"Wellll... to be honest with you mom. The person I've been texting is well... a boy." she said, putting emphasis on the word "boy."

"Ooooo," Anna awed, shaking her shoulders in excitement.

She put her hands on Jenna's knee, leaning in closer. Her long black hair fell over her shoulder and fell in her face a bit. She was honestly a beautiful woman.

"Tell me about him." she coaxed.

Jenna let out a high pitched giggle. She glanced at the stair case to make sure her brother was still up in his room and not listening. Then she turned back to her mother.

"Well his name's Momotarou, but everyone calls him Momo. And I think thats really cute because in English that means Peach. So I call him my Peach all the time and I think he really likes that because he says its cute when I do it. He has this really firey like redish-orange hair, like even brighter then Ron's. And his eyes are like peaces of pure gold. His heart is pure gold, he's so sweet and innocent. And he's a swimmer too! He specializes in the backstroke just like bubba! He goes to Samezuka though, so he's competition and thats not really a good thing... but I don't care, I'll still route for him too. Just in secret." she said the last bit whispering to her mother, who giggled.

Jenna held a big smile, she clutched her phone to her chest again, "He's just so cute and so sweet mom! and the first time we met, the first word he said to me was 'you're gorgeous.' That was just so nice, mom. It was wonderful and he's just so energetic and I really like him and I'm pretty positive he likes me and I've never felt this way about anyone before." she exclaimed.

Her mother smiled wide, glad that her daughter was happy, "How old is he?" she asked, the question pricking at her mind.

"He's 15, and he's a sophomore but I don't really care, he's perfect and I neeeed him," she whined, kicking her legs slightly.

"Need who? Who is 'him'?" David, who had quietly descended from the stairs, asked, arms now crossed as he leaned against the banister.

"Oh, um. No one, bubba, don't worry about it." she said, nonchalantly, slightly shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head.

David squinted at her and then turned to look at his mother. Or glare at her rather. His mother merely shrugged as well, obviously giving nothing up. David glared at both of them back and forth making sure no one was really going to give up anything. When he was sure they wouldn't he nodded his head slowly.

"Oh I'll find out... don't worry. I'll find out." he said as he climbed back up the stairs.

The two women looked at each other and laughed, even though they knew David was quite serious, it was still funny.

__ __ __

 

Nitori peered over the edge of the bunk bed on his tip-toes to see his roommate lying on his stomach, eyes still plastered to his cell phone. Momo didn't even notice that Nitori was staring at him. Nitori's eyebrows furrowed, he seemed troubled. Momo had been completely silent for about 2 hours now and there may or may not have been a brief moment where Nitori feared he was dead. Now knowing that Momo was perfectly fine however, he became curious.

"Momo-kun?" he asked, still on his tip-toes so that just from his eyes and above were visible from the red heads position.

Momo jumped at the noise, sitting up straight immediately.

"Yes Nitori-Sempai?" he answered.

When his phone buzzed in his lap, it was obvious it took all his will power not to look down at it. Nitori pulled him self up to the first rung of the ladder to have a more even view of his roommate.

"I don't mean to intrude on your personal business, but who have you been talking to? You haven't said a word in over an hour and a half and it was starting to worry me. Is anything wrong?" he asked, his face showing genuine concern.

Momo's large smile returned then and he leaned back against the wall. He picked up his phone and showed the contact to Nitori.

"I've been talking to Jenna-san. She's really very interesting!!" he said excitedly.

Nitori smiled, relived that nothing was wrong. He climbed up onto the bed, sitting in front of Momo, ready for the long spiel about his new found love interest.

"She's told me all about herself and her family! I found out a lot about her brother, David, and about her mom. Apparently she doesn't have a dad. But she says her mom makes the best burgers on earth and she told me that once their family restaurant opens in town that she was going to take me to have one! She also told me aaallll about California and that it's always sunny there and they have all different types of terrains like beaches, and mountains, and forests, and cities. She used to live on a vineyard and they had a bunch of horses too so she's really good at riding horseback. She told me about her surfing too and that she has a competition coming up really soon and that she wants me to come watch her win, cause I'm sure she'll win. And she also invited me to come over to her house one weekend and she said she'd try to teach me how to surf and then we'd go out in the woods on her property and look for beetles!! Can you believe that, she likes beetles!!! I've never met a girl who really likes beetles!" he exclaimed, excitedly all the things he and Jenna had talked about and all the times she'd invited him places and how they both talked about their brothers for a long long time.

"Wow, Momo-kun, it seems like she really likes you." Nitori encouraged, smiling at how refreshing it was to hear him talk about someone other then Gou.

"You really think so?!" he beamed, eyes sparkling as he held his phone to his chest.

Nitori nodded. "She's invited you several places she obviously really wants to be with you. I'm guessing that means she likes you." he stated, quite sure of himself.

"Wow," he awed, "Just imagined if I could make Jenna-san my girlfriend. That would be amazing. She so gorgeous and so cool!"

Nitori giggles and patted Momo on his shoulder, "Maybe someday Momo, I would defiantly say its possible."

Momo smiled even wider then normal, if that was even possible. His eyes glistened with excitement as he continued to tell Nitori aaaalll he'd learned about Jenna.

__ __ __

 

Ron pulled his arm around his body, bringing his other arm over the front of it, while also twisting his torso in the same direction of his out stretched arm. The other boys all did similar stretches while they did their warm up before practice. The girls sat on a covered bench, waiting for them to finish.

They we're all done stretching and about to get in the water when Rei noticed that Nagisa seemed to be contemplating something. He was staring at Ron's back where a long portrait of a reef was painted into his skin. Ron's tattoo had been there since he joined the club. They noticed it the first time they joined them at practice but no one ever asked about it, although everyone has always wondered about it. They all assumed that David and Jenna knew about its time of origin and its meaning but never asked them either. They all figured it would be impolite, if they were going to ask they would ask Ron himself.

This is what obviously seemed to be bothering Nagisa. Being curious in the first place, he'd nearly bite his tongue to blood every practice trying not to ask about it. This practice however, he seemed to finally reach his breaking point for he was actually biting his lip and staring at Ron's back rather than just glancing out it now and then.

It was a beautiful work of skin art and was by no means trashy. His back portrayed a reef scene. It had several colors incorporated into it as well as a long string of fish that seemed to be swimming up his back to his shoulder. Within the beautiful picture was an anchor with a rope going up again to his shoulder, opposite the fish. The rope spelled something in English in cursive letters. Even though most of them had a fairly good understanding of English letters, because of the odd shape of them, being written in cursive, none of the boys could read it very well.

It seemed as though Nagisa had made up his mind when he stepped closer to Ron, seeming confident.

"Um, .. Ron-chan?" he asked, though his posture confident his voice wasn't very.

Ron turned to look at him fully, facing the tattoo twords the pool were it was able to be viewed better by Haru and Makoto who had already started walking twords the water.

"Hm? Yeah, what is it? Is something wrong, Nagisa?" he asked, sounding slightly worried.

"No, no," he reassured with a wave of his hand, "nothing's wrong, I was just wondering... I think all of us have been wondering for a while about... well."

He spoke in broken sentences seeming to not know exactly how to word what it was he wanted to say. Ron simply smiled at him, already understanding what this was about.

"You've been wondering about my tattoo," he finished for Nagisa.

The smaller blonde boy nodded. As Ron looked around at the others they all seemed to be looking away from him, showing in a way that they admitted to wondering about it too and felt guilty.

Ron went over and sat on the bench beside Jenna were Gou had sat before she had gotten up. David walked over to stand beside the bench by his secret love. Ron motioned with his hand for them all to come over to him. They all sat down in front of the bench as if it were story time, which to be honest it was about to be. All the boy's and even Gou stared at Ron in wait, with looks of deep interest on their faces.

Jenna looked over at Ron with an encouraging smile. The smile wasn't a normal "Jenna smile" though, but rather a smile with a twinge of sadness to it. David placed a hand on Ron's shoulder. Ron looked up at him and David's face was one of worry. Ron gave him and Jenna both reassuring smiles, as he removed David's hand from his shoulder.

"Well as I've told you all before I have two older sisters," he began and the audience nodded at the statement confirming their knowledge of it, "well in a way that's not true. I have three older sisters. Two living sisters and one late sister. Eliza's the oldest of my sisters know, followed by Ashley, but before the tragedy, I had a sister who was even older than Eliza. Her name was Annalise. I was 10 when she died, Ashley was 14, Eliza was 20 and Annalise was 23. It was 3 years before Dana was born, and one year before Eliza got married to my brother-in-law Raymond. My parents had just opened a new restaurant and to celebrate we all went out on a boat that my parents rented. It was just my family neither David or Jenna was there, they were celebrating with their mom their own way. It was a fun time and we all enjoyed ourselves for about a good two hours. That was when the ocean..." he paused.

Ron starred down at the ground, his eyes were wide. He looked like a deer caught in headlights. He quickly shook his head and brought himself back however. He cleared his throat and apologized before continuing.

"The ocean got a lot rougher. It was like... It was like the ocean itself was angry. It just started producing bigger and bigger waves. The wind started blowing much harder. The boat began to rock very hard as it was thrown over the waves and I fell off. At that point I was 10. I was small, scared, and I had just joined a swim team so I wasn't very good yet. Not to mention the waves were crazy and I ... started to drown," Ron's voice cracked. He cleared his throat again, and once more continued, "Anna... Anna jumped in and saved me. She brought me back to the boat and lifted me up to my dad. But before he could grab her hand... she was pushed away by a wave... Then it happened...," Ron placed his face in his hands, his back rose and fell as he took a deep breath, brought his face back up and again, continued, "It all happened at once that it felt just like one non-moving picture. It just happened... The white underside, the teeth, the scream, the red water. It was obvious what had happened, we all watched it happen... but it was just so hard to believe. My mother started screaming and my dad had to keep her from jumping in after her. It felt like the whole ocean turned red that day.... It's still red. I can't look at the ocean without seeing red. I can't go near the ocean without trembling... without crying." Ron finished his story, his body was shaking and tears pricked at the edge of his eyes.

He whipped the tears away with his wrist and looked up from the ground to see his friends faces. They all looked at him in a look that was a combination of sympathy, horror, and shock.

"So um... when I turned 18 the first thing I did, on my birthday was get a tattoo of the reef we were near that day. The rope spells out her name... I wanted to dedicate a part of myself to her... but I didn't want to have to look at it." he concluded.

He looked at all the saddened faces of his friends. Ron laughed a bit as he stood up.

"I guess I probably could have just said it was dedicated to someone important... I kinda ruined the mood, huh?" he apologized, rubbing his neck guiltily.

That was when something he didn't expect to happen, happened. He was hugged. He was hugged by a small blonde. Then a small red head, followed by a tall blue haired boy. The whole team, even Haru, gave him a hug. They all apologized for his lost. Nagisa then, timidly, apologized for asking about the tattoo.

Ron smiled, whipping tears from his eyes.

"Don't apologize, Nagisa. Or any of you. I needed to tell you. You're all my friends and my team and you deserve to know. And if their is anything about me you want to know or if you have a question thats bugging you, about any of us really, don't hesitate to ask... And as far as Annalise goes... she dove in the water that day, I believe, fully knowing it was her life or mine. She decided in that moment that my life was worth more than hers. That decision is what made me what I am today, a swimmer. If she believed in the worth of my life, then I can't let her down. I have to make something of myself, make myself worth something, if not for me then for her," he said, whipping his eyes again.

They all gave a sympathetic smile to Ron, who was again whipping his eyes while now reviving a hug from Jenna and David. Ron smiled again and took a deep breath, and waved his hand twords the pool.

"But come on... We can't focus on that! Prelims are in a few weeks and we need to focus on swimming come on, guys quit slacking, get in the water, go, go, go!" he said attempting to be enthusiastic. He pushed at them, waving more.

Then practice continued normally though now the team had a new view of Ron. One that made them have a whole new respect for him and his family, even if they hadn't met them. They saw Ron in an entirely new light and his already incredible ability and national titles now seemed to be even more impressive. They meant more now, not just to Ron but to his team. They could become a better team now.

___ ___ ___

 

Ron watched from within a tight, warm cocoon of blankets on his bed as David paced around his room. His eyes followed his boyfriend as he walked from one side of the room to the other again and again and again in deep thought. All Ron was thinking about was how much warmer it would be if David were in the blankets with him.

"Shes just so sneaky. So sly..." David mumbled.

"Shes 16," Ron stated blandly, "if she hadn't perfected the art of keeping secrets by now I'd honestly be very concerned."

David glared over at his boyfriend, unamused, "But I have to know, Ron. I have to know what boy she's into now and if he'll treat her right. It's my job to protect her... lord knows my dads not around to do it." he mumbled.

Ron made a slight frown and nodded. Then a smile came across his face.

"But I mean we were honestly sneaky when we were 16 too David... At least she's just talking to someone and not doing what we were doing," he said, smirking.

David smiled a little bit and nodded, "Yeah. I'm glad about that. Although we weren't really all that sneaky... we were kinda loud. Or well... you were."

Ron glared at David, "Shut up... I mean now... we don't even try to hide that thats what we're doing..."

"Well yeah. We're 18. We're adults and have every right." David said. Then he began to pace again, "But still, Ron, quiet down, I need to focus on who this kid is."

"No. I wanna cuddle," Ron complained.

David didn't look at him.

Ron pouted, "Daaaaaaavid," he whined.

David looked over at Ron, again, and he'd crawled out of his cocoon and the blankets layed more limply in his lap. He had his arms outstretched twords David. He retained the pout on his face. He opened and closed his hands a few times and whined again. He looked like a little kid making that motion, especially with the pouty face and the ruffled up bedhead.

"Come cuddle with meeeee," he whined some more.

All the frustration and concentration that David had been holding was erased from him as he stopped in his tracks, watching his adorable boyfriend. A wide smile grew across his face again as he ran over to the bed throwing his arms around Ron. The amount of force from running to the bed made Ron tumble over and David rolled to the other side of the bed, the side against the wall. When they had both stopped moving and had settled, they were facing each other, Ron still in David's arms. Ron was giggling profusely while David gave a kiss to his nose.

"You're to fucking cute Ron. You're just adorable. You ooze cuteness from your pores." David praised.

Ron let out another giggle as a kiss was placed to his nose again, "Shut up, David," he laughed.

David let go of Ron to sit a bit more up right in the bed. He propped himself up in the corner where the bed met the walls' corner. Once David was situated, Ron scooted himself up more to lay on his side in between David's legs, with his head on his chest. He brought the blanket with him to recocoon himself. Once Ron was comfortable, David held one arm around him and used the other to stroke his hair. Ron closed his eyes with a blissful smile, feeling very content and David brought his head down to give Ron's forehead a kiss.

"Mmm. I love you, David," Ron cooed, "Sooo much."

David smiled, "I love you too, baby." he almost whispered in response.

Ron giggled again, the little giggle that only came out when it was just him and David. Ron craned his neck back to look up at his smiling boyfriend. Ron puckered his lips, what he always did when he wanted to be kissed. David's smile grew even wider before complying to what Ron wanted and planting a long, passionate kiss on his lips.

"David?" Ron asked, once their lips parted, his eyes big and begging.

"Yes, baby?"

"Will you stay here with me tonight?" he pleaded, "I don't wanna go to bed alone. I don't like it."

"I don't either," he replied, "And of course, I'll stay. When do I ever say no to you?"

Ron smiled again letting out a hum of happiness before responding with "never." Which just made David pepper him with even more kisses, which then, as it always does, made Ron giggle. They continued to talk and cuddle for a long time and David picked up his complaining again about finding out Jenna's new love interest. Ron felt very content and very warm and safe in David's arms and without really realizing he was even tired, he fell asleep.

___ ___ ___

 

"Thank you, Ashley!" Jenna called out, waving to Ashley as the girl drove back off. Jenna then went onto walk through town to the train station where she would ride it into the city to go and meet her brother and friend at the unopened restaurant. She could have asked Ashley to driver her all the way into the city, but she had someplace to stop in town first.

Jenna walked up the old concrete stairs up to Haru's house, where she had left her jacket the day before, when the group had gathered there after practice. Jenna rang the doorbell a few times. There was no response but she could here a rustling from inside before she heard a voice call out "coming."

It was a voice that she was fairly sure was not Haru's and when Makoto answered the door her assumption was confirmed. She gave him a weak smile but wasn't very confident because he seemed a bit disappointed to have had to answer the door.

"Oh, Hello Jenna. Did you need to talk to Haru?" he asked, moving out of the door to let her in.

She shook her head, "No I just left my jacket here yesterday. I was going by here anyway and figured I'd come and pick it up, but if this isn't a good time I can comeback later." She said, stepping back tword the door way a bit.

She sensed a bit of a rushed atmosphere as if the older boy wanted her to leave. It was an aura she didn't often feel come from him. She sensed their was something not right going on.

"No, no it's fine. Um do you remember were you left it?" he asked.

She nodded and began to walk to the living room. She did see the homes actual owner around however.

"So um.. Were's Haru?" she asked, as she picked up her jacket.

"In his room." Makoto answered, quickly.

Jenna squinted at him. He didn't meet here eyes. She looked him over. He was wearing pajamas and his hair was messed up. He seemed a little bit out of breath and nervous. Haru was in his room and hadn't come out. It was starting to make sense to her why he wanted her to leave so quickly.

"Sooo Makoto... what were doing over here at Haru's house anyway." she asked, smirking.

His eyes snapped up from the ground to look at her. He gave a nervous laugh before answering.

"Nothing really. Just hanging out, because ya know, we're such good friends." he laughed nervously again.

Jenna nodded slowly, "So then I didn't... say interrupt anything?" she interrogated.

"N-no of course not."

"Mhm. So If I were to go into Haru's room right now, he'd be fully dressed?" she threatened, taking a step back twords the door to his room.

"NO! ... I-I mean...uhm, yeah but..." he stopped her before stuttering trying to make something up which he apparently was not good at.

Jenna smiled wide.

"How long, Makoto?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"How long have you and Haru been together?"

"A year." A voice came from behind them.

Haru had stepped out of his room, he was fully dressed but his shirt was to big and quite obviously belonged to Makoto, Jenna'd even seen him wear it before. Both her and Makoto looked back at him. Jenna smiled seeming pleased with herself, Makoto just seemed even more exhausted then before.

"Aww, how sweet," she said, "well I'm sorry I interrupted you."

She apologized, getting ready to leave when Makoto stopped her.

"Wait, Jenna... um could you... not tell anyone about today. Not just what happened but about us? We aren't really ready to tell anyone yet..." he said, sounding guilty.

Jenna's smile went from cocky to sympathetic as she nodded reassuringly, "Of course. I wont say anything I promise."

However once Jenna left she let out a loud sigh. She walked tword the train station she kicked every rock she came across, uninterested but deep in thought and slightly depressed. She now knew about three separate gay relationships about all her friends but had promised each of them not to tell the other. However she knew that the only reason they wanted her to keep quiet was because of the others, which no matter which way she cut it, they were all gay and there was nothing for them to be so afraid of. But she had made a promise and now she felt horrible for want so badly to break it. Jenna felt not only conflicted but upset and it put a major damper on her previously excited mood to get to the restaurant.

___ ___ ___

 

Jenna sat at one of the outside tables at the "M&M Dinner." She had her elbows on the table, with her palms under her chin holding her head up. Her face held a very conflicted look. She was upset and that was obvious. That was until she finally heard the voice she had been sitting outside waiting for.

"JENNAAAAAAA," a very excited voice, coming from a very excited red head boomed from behind her.

Jenna turned around in her chair immediately happy to see Momo and even more happy to see how excited he was to see her. Jenna's face grew a very large smile and her attitude changed from somber as it was before, to excited. She stood to greet the red head as he approached from behind her.

"Peach!" she called out opening her arms to him as came up to her.

With the invitation of open arms, Momo gave her a tight embrace which she returned. She sat back down having him sit with her, pulling the chair next to her a little closer to her simply because she wanted him close to her. They sat and talked at hte table outside for a long time about various things. Their voices were honestly kind of loud and people passing by could undoubtedly hear their conversation. It didn't really matter to them though because they were having a good time. Jenna would go inside sometimes to get them drinks but she mostly stayed put spending as much time with this kid as she could.

"My first surfing competition is in a few days," Jenna brought up absentmindedly.

"Really?! Thats cool are you excited?" he asked.

"Yeah I am. I'm excited to see what kind of competition I'll have. Or rather who I'll be beating."

"You're really that confident?"

"Oh yeah! Well I mean kind of. Anything can happen and surfing isn't an easy sport, but I've won a National title two years in a row back home. Last year and the year before."

"Woaah. For real?!"

"Yep! I placed as the first in the nation for the amateur womens' surfing competition two years in a row. The nationals were held in Hawaii last year and so we spent most of the summer there."

"Wow. You're so cool," Momo's voice rang with awe.

Jenna giggled and waved a hand at the thought shaking her head. She leaned in a bit closer to Momo and clasped her hands together looking excited.

"Will you come watch me at my first competition? I wanna show you just how good I really am!" she asked.

Even if he had wanted to, which he didn't, Momo wouldn't have been able to say no to Jenna. For one she looked to excited and it would have possibly broken her heart if he said no, and he couldn't bear the thought of doing that to her. Secondly she actually wanted him to be there. She wanted to show him how good she was. He was excited to see how good she was.

Therefore he nodded his head excitedly, "Of course I'll be there for you Jenna!!" he said, taking her hand in both of his, "I wouldn't miss seeing how amazing you are for anything."

Jenna blushed and looked away from him, "Good because I'd be really disappointed," she admitted.

He nodded, assuring her again that he would make sure that he was there and it was quite apparent that both parties were extremely excited.

___ ___ ___

 

"Him?! REALLY?!" David exclaimed, staring through the window of the dinner.

Ron looked up at him from the game of Tetris he had been playing on his phone.

"What are you on about now?" he asked or complained rather.

David looked back at Ron leaning against the window of the empty restaurant.

"That kid from the Samezuka swim team, the one with the red-orange hair. The one who was really jumpy and swam the backstroke in their relay at Splash Fest. THATS the boy Jenna likes." David explained, sounding aggravated.

Ron rolled his eyes not seeing how this was such a big deal.

"Yeah and?"

"And thats not good. Because he quite obviously likes her back."

"So? Jenna gets a boyfriend. Whats wrong about that. You have one."

"No shit, Ron."

He glared at his boyfriend who just smirked at him. He stood up and walked over to David, wrapping his arms around his neck and pulling himself closer to him. David rolled his eyes and loosely put his arms around Ron's waist. Ron reached up and kissed him.

"Come back to the table and sit with me," he coaxed, rubbing David's cheek, "we can share a milkshake."

David gave Ron a return kiss and followed him back to the table. He sighed, "You'll get it when Dana starts getting interested in boys."

Ron shook his head, "By the time Danas Jen's age, we'll have our own kids to deprive of love lives."

David laughed, a true, genuine laugh. Once again, Ron had erased David's frustration.

"Yeah thats true." he agreed chuckling.

**___ ___ ___**

 

"Today's the day Jen!" David said, smiling at his little sister.

He loaded the girl's surfboard into the back of the van along with a duffle bag containing things like water, towels, sun block, and wax.

"I knooow! I can't wait to wiiiiin" She sing-songed.

David laughed, "Now don't be disappointed if you don't, though Jenna. Remember your goal today is to make it to the next stage of the competition. We're taking this heat by heat."

"I know, I know. Moving on is the important part, don't get cocky, don't be disappointed, I know, I know, I know... But I'm still gonna win, just you watch bubba." she said as she headed twords the back seat of the van.

David smiled and ruffled the hair in between her half-done ponytails. She had them pulled halfway through on the third loop so that they'd be shorter and not in her way. David gave a kiss to the top of his sister's head.

"I know you will," he assured her before patting her back and pushing her twords the back seat.

He climbed into the front with his boyfriend. He started up the van and they headed for the beach. It was a good half an hour before they actually made it to the beach. After all it takes them a good 10 minutes just to get off the property and onto the road.

Once they arrived the boys set up Jenna's stuff along with their own towels to sit on and watch the competition. They had gotten there early and had a good view of the water. Jenna went to go check in with the administration of the competition.

"So did the guys tell you if they were gonna make it or not?" Jenna asked David as she stretched.

"Yeah. They'll be here. And you said Nagisa and Rei were coming as well right?"

"Yep, Gou too. They should all be here pretty soon."

"Nice."

It was not very long after their arrival that other competes began to arrive. There was a good 15 other girls that had arrived to compete. Soon after them spectates and venders began to set up their own arrangements. Among the spectators arriving were Haru and Makoto. They were first out of their friends to arrive. It made sense they lived the closest. Not long after their arrival was Gou, then Nagisa and Rei. However the guest that Jenna was anticipating the most had not yet arrived and she was becoming discouraged.

While the boys from the team conversing among each other, Gou noticed that something seemed to be bothering Jenna as she kept checking the crowd of people.

"Is something wrong, Jenna?" she asked, concerned.

"I asked Momo to come today, and he said he'd be here but he hasn't showed up yet and the first heat is going to be starting soon." she said, looking over at the clock on the score board that had been set up.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon Jenna. Don't worry." she reassured.

Jenna nodded and sat down to continue waxing her board. She looked out over the ocean while she did and she began to feel the excitement well up inside of her once again. The competitive spirit was felt in the air as the girls looked around at each other murmuring about who they thought was a threat and who wasn't.

Jenna was deep in thought when she heard her name ring in her ears. A voice that came from a very loud and excited peach. Jenna stood up immediately and turned around to see, as she had expected, Momo come bounding up to her. She called out to him in response and opened her arms, as she had done the past several times they'd met up. Momo ran up to her and threw himself into her open arms. She giggled under the chocking force of his hug. When he let go a relieved smile came to her face as she looked up at him.

"I'm so sorry I'm late Jenna-san! The train was delayed and we couldn't board for like 15 minutes because they were working on it and once we finally got on it was moving a lot slower then usual." he complained.

Jenna let out a breath and hugged him again, "I'm just glad you made it."

"Of course I did! I would have ran here if I had to!" he assured her.

Jenna giggled. While still hugging him, she took a moment to glance over Momo's shoulder at Ron, restraining her brother from coming her way. She mouthed a thank you to him. He nodded in response before giving his boyfriend what looked like a stern talking to.

When Jenna let go of Momo, he took the chance to look the girl over. She wore a short-sleeved, yellow surfing shirt with black stripes on the sides of the arms and torso. Like most womens' surf shirts it was tight and showed some of her stomach. Her swimsuit bottom was black and came to just above her knees.It had a design on it depicting a yellow swirling pattern that looked similar to ram horns.

Momo touched Jenna's shortened ponytails. His face was awestruck-en and he had a slight blush dusted across his cheeks. Jenna looked down to the ground, a blush coming to her own face as she knew what was coming.

"You look... adorable," he awed.

Jenna shook her head, giggling.

"I'm not that cute..." she said shaking her head again.

He nodded, "No you're not just cute, you're adorable," he corrected her and she giggled again.

She brought Momo over with her to help her continue to wax her board. She was explaining to Momo as well as Nagisa and Gou, who were curious about it as well, about why surfers always applied wax to their boards when a girl approached them.

The girl had short black hair and bangs that were stained purple and went strait across the line with her eyebrows. She had bright blue eyes and a tan completion. Her expresion was bland and uninterested. She was about Jenna's hight, as Jenna found out when she, along with her friends, stood. The girl wore an onsomble similar to Jenna's in that she had a top with black stripes on it and nearly knee-length bottoms, however this girl's outfit color consisted of a dark purple that looked almost black. Her swimsuit bottom had no design on it just a ring of purple color around the leg where the swimsuit ended and around the waist where it began.

"You're Jennifer Miles, right? The American?" she asked, saying the word "American," as if it left a vile taste in her mouth.

"Yes. I am. And you are?" Jenna answered, crossing her arms, disgusted by the girls cocky attitude.

"Mora Shinjo. I'm a National level swimmer as well," she said, looking at Jenna up and down, "Though I have to say when I heard you've been to the American nationals before, I expected something... more when we were to meet. I'm therowly disapointed."

"Well to be honest, sweet heart, seeing your face hasn't made my day any better either," Jenna answered, the disgust she felt with this girl now becoming prominent in her voice.

The girl looked shocked by Jenna's statement. It was quite apparent that she had not expected that of Jenna.

"What a blunt comment from someone who has a reputation as such a nice, and ... passive girl," Mora rebuttled.

"What do want, Mora. Why'd you come over here?" she asked, sounding fed up already.

"I wanted to make sure you knew that I don't find you a threat. And that you shouldn't be hurt when I say that I'm not, and don't intened to become your fan by any means." she stated, crossing her arms.

Jenna raised an eyebrow. She was obviously not the biggest fan of this bitch right now either.

"Well, I'm not here to make friends with anybody. I'm not here to make enemies with anybody. If I end up making one or other, both even, I'm fine with that. But either way I'm here today to surf, and I'm here to win, and honey I'd looove to see you try and stop me." Jenna stated.

Before the girl could say anything Jenna turned around and walked away. She picked up her board and had begun to walk twords the water. The first heat of todays competition was about to start and the competers were ordered to get in the water.

The group watched her leave, and an enraged Mora follow after.

"She's going to beat that girl," Gou stated, "easily."

David chuckled, "Oh no. She's not gonna just beat her. She's going to annialate her."

And that she did. Only three waves into the heat and Jenna was already in first, above Mora, who was in second, by 7 points. Jenna coninued to one up the girl over and over again through out the heats of the day. When Mora would have a head start on a wave, Jenna would make up for Mora's head start and then some by beating her to it and scoring better then Mora would have. When Mora would get a 7 point wave, Jenna would then catch the next and make it an 8 pointer. When Mora would catch up with an 8, Jenna made 9. Jenna beat Mora easily and made it seem effortless, which is one reason why she got even more points.

By the end of the day's competition Jenna had won and Mora was runner up. Jenna tood upon the first place pedistole, holding up her trophie and shaking it. Once the crowd had started to depart and other competitors had left as well Jenna stepped down from her platform and smiled wickedly at Mora.

"Nice surfing today, Mora," Jenna began, "Second place is very impressive feat."

Mora glared at Jenna, "You better watch your back, Miles-" she started before she was interupted by a suddenly by Jenna.

Her face held a very dark and intimidating expression, something that wasn't normaly seen on Jenna. "No you better watch your back, Shinjo. Because you may have been the best around but you're not anymore and you need to step down on that high horse of yours, darling, before I'm forced to take you off of it myself," Jenna hissed.

Mora and even Jenna's friends were taken by suprise by Jenna's tone and statement. However after she said it she brightened back up to normal Jenna again.

"I don't want to have to keep embarassing you in front of the sponcers that are sure to come. But if you keep talkin shit I will be more than happy to," she stated so sweetly that it became bitter.

And again before Mora had the chance to reply Jenna walked away, taking her board to the van to pack it away. Her friends followed her.

"Wow, Jenna-chan. You did amazing today! You blew the competition out of the water!" Nagisa exclaimed.

Jenna smiled and rubbed her neck, "Well I mean... It wasn't really that hard."

"I agree with Nagisa. You're form looked utterly beautiful. You were by far the most talented surfer out there today," Rei chimed in.

Jenna grew a blush on her face as she continuied to humbly deny the praise that the team, and Momo gave her. Though she mostly blushed because of Momo stating how amazing she was and how she really showed him how impressive she was.

Though eventually they all parted ways and headed home making the end of an exciting day of surfing.

 

___ ___ ___

 

"Ron are you actually having a beer? You weren't joking earlier?" Jenna asked, watching in shock as Ron took another long gulp of his drink.

"Nope I wasn't kidding. I spent all fucking day at the beach, and even though you're worth it Jen, I still spent all day near the ocean. I need a fucking drink." he stated.

The boy looked utterly exhausted. He no doubt had been working hard all day trying to contain his anxiety.

"David will you come over and sleep with me tonight?" he asked, as David brought the duffle bag back in from the van through the back door and placed the wet and sandy towels in the washing machine.

"Are you asking me to like sleep with you or are you asking me to sleep with you?" he answered with his own question, pouring in washing machine soap.

Ron shrugged taking another sip of his beer, "Well I want you to come over and just sleep with me, but if both were to happen I wouldn't complain." he teased.

David smiled, closing the washing machine and starting it.

"Well then I'll deffinatly come over. Just let me get my school stuff and my uniform for tomorrow. Is it alright if I shower at your place?" he asked.

Ron smiled, "I don't mind that at all," Ron said, waggling his eyebrows.

Jenna made a gagging noise. "You two are so gay," she teased before leaving the kitchen and going upstairs to shower herself.

The boys laughed and muttered an agreement to themselves that yes infact they were very, very gay.

 

___ ___ ___

 

It was a week later on a saturday that the whole group was practicing when Jenna found herslef in a predicament. She watched all the boys actions very carefully that day, collecting information about their actions to help her make up her mind. She noticed a sence of awkwardness between all the boys that she never had before. They all tried so hard to seem like just friends but now that she new otherwise, very obvious it was strenuous on all of them.

Jenna watched for a long time, until practice was nearly over when she finaly made up her mind. As the boys were drying off and geting ready to go in and change, Jenna stood up on the bench she was sitting on and cleared her throat loudly to get their attention.

"Okay everyone. There is something that has been bothering me for a while now. And I know deep down it's been bothering all of you as well. And I really hope that you don't all get mad at me when I'm done with this announcement but I just know that once I say it it'll make alot of things easier on all of us okay?" she started.

Everyone nodded although they didn't really quite understand her nervousness.

"I have found something out recently. About each of you that I feel needs to be shared," she continued.

Now they all became nervous as well. What was she doing? Who was she talking about? What was she about to say?

"You're all gay." she stated, "Except Gou, I know you're strait and none of this really applies to you but, boys, you are all gay. You don't have to keep hiding your relationships from each other because your afraid the others wont accept you. Because you're all gay. Ron and David, you two are dating. Nagisa, Rei, you two are dating. Haru and Makoto, you two are dating. You're all gay, and you need to quit hiding it."

Jenna then jumped down from her bench and looked around at all the shocked faces that were looking at each other too. They wach looked at each other both looking for confirmation of Jenna's accusation and giving it. Then they all looked at Jenna who shrunk in on her self looking down at the ground feeling very guilty.

"I'm sorry, please don't be mad at me... I mean I understand if you are but-" she was cut off by a hug that came from her brother.

She looked up from within his arms to see that all the boys were smiling at her. Then she smiled back realising she'd done good. They all thanked her for telling them. They all felt more relaxed and at ease. Jenna had just made the team feel alot more a team. She just made them feel alot more bonded. Just one simple statement had made the team a better team.

 

___ ___ ___

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up moving somethings out of Chapter 3 that I wanted to put in it. But my want to post this tonight so I moved two events into Chapter 4 instead. Which will be find because I honestly think they'll fit better in my plans for Chapter 4 anyway. And again I did just post it so this chapter is very raw and has quite a bit of grammarical hiccups and spelling errors


	4. A Long Time Coming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Iwatobi team starts to learn even more about the kids past.

 

It was 3 am and a scream erupted  in the house, shattering the previous silence. It was a quick sound. One that was over as soon as it started. It made it feel uncomfortable  when silence fell back over the room. Silence all except for the very light hum of the A.C. and a teenager's heavy breathing. 

Ron was sitting bolt up-right in his bed. His face was white and his body was stiff, aside from his hands that wouldn't stop shaking. He was sweating even though his skin felt cold. His brown eyes were wide open and focused, but not on anything in particular. They had a glossy, deer-in-the-headlights kind of look. It took a few moments to regain control  of his breathing. Once he had, he stared  down at his shaking hands trying to focus on steadying them. He turned his head to look beside him when he felt his bed moving.

David propped himself up on his elbows , rubbing his eyes a bit, trying to get them to focus past the still fresh haze of sleep and  darkness. He yawned and then sat up all the way.

"Is everything alright, sweetheart ?" he asked around another yawn that pushed it's way out of him.

Ron opened and closed his mouth a bunch of times, unable to find the correct thing to say. He stared down at his shaking hands and then looked at David. His lip began to quiver and he shook his head, his eyes threatening tears.

David pulled Ron into his arms. He frowned when he felt how hard he was shaking. He lightley stroked the back of Ron's head, pressing him closer into his chest. He felt his shirt become damp.

" Shhh .  Shhhhh . It's okay baby... it was just a bad dream... it's in the past. It's over now. You're safe now." his voice was very light and gentle. He almost whispered the words to the boy in his arms.

Unfortunat e ly  this r o utine  was all to familiar to him. The nightmares, the screaming, the shaking. It's come to the point where he doesn't have to ask what the dream was about. He knew.

Eventually the shaking stops and the eyes are dry again, and it always takes convincing but he still gets Ron to lay back down. He covers him up nice and tight in the blankets. He continu es  to rub his back and kiss his head until he falls back to sleep. Even after he was asleep, David doesn't realize  his grip on him. He only holds Ron closer to him. 

"It's okay now," he whispers, as quietly as he can, "I'm here. I'll protect you." 

David slowly falls back to sleep wishing he truly  could protect Ron. From his dreams, from all that he's been through. He just wants to keep him safe from everything. Safe and happy.

_____ ____  _____

"How are you always wearing a sweater? I mean, summer,  winter, spring, fall. Doesn't matter your always wearing a sweater. Either a sweater or one of David's shirts. Regardless all of your tops are way to big for you." Jenna inquired, poking at Ron's sweater.

"I just like wearing big cloths," he shrugged, wrapping his arms around himself, "they're warm. And I like wearing David's cloths cause they smell like him. I like that."

A small blissful little smile came across the boys face. David gave him a kiss to his cheek. 

"And that's cute and all but I have to go shopping a lot because my cloths just "disappear ," and so I buy more, and then a few weeks later your either wearing it or I see it in your closet." David jokingly complained, giving a gentle nudge to Ron's side.

Ron giggled and smiled up at him. "Yeah but you never make me give 'em back either, do you?"

"No... I don't." he sighed.   


"But still... don't you get hot? Like in summer I mean?" Jenna asked again.

 Ron nodded. "Yeah sometimes, but if you think being a little warm sometimes is  gonna  stop me from looking cute then you're wrong. I'm not that weak. A little bit of sweat won't defeat me."

Jenna giggled. "Fair enough."

David pulled Ron a bit closer to him, with the arm he had loosely wrapped around his waist. "And you defiantly look cute." he added, placing another kiss on his cheek.

Ron giggled and turned his head away. "Shut up."

The three kids walked down the side walk in the city towards  the dinner. They had all planned to meet the rest of the team at the diner. The diner had recently opened, and made it a nice place for the group to hang out, and the fact that they were provided with free food, was a bonus as well.

During all hours the tables were full, inside and out. A variation of American music played lightly on the speakers both inside and outside of the restaurant . The place had a classic American 50's style diner theme and decor . Even the waiters  and waitresses dressed in styles of the era. The theme seemed to draw the customers in, and the food kept them coming back. Both were original for the area, and the fact that they were authentic, a place run by an actual  American family, made the appeal even stronger. The place was no doubt successful . 

When they arrived, the kids were automatically greeted by the staff, in a different way that they would greet most customers however. They were greeted with much more closeness. Of course being the owner's children, this was common.

Right after being greeted by the staff, they were then greeted by their friends, who had already been seated in a large corner booth in the front of the restaurant, right by the front windows. When the three arrived, the five others scooted over to make room for them in the booth.  

" Whattcha lookin at?" Jenna asked, scooting closer to  Nagisa, who was holding something in his hands.

It was a simple wooden picture frame which contained a picture that the three knew very well. It hung in the wall of every resaurant the family had opened.

"Where'd you guys get that?" Ron asked, leaning over. 

Makoto gave a gentle smile, one he was known for, "Your mother came by and showed it to us. She said when she saw the team jackets she remembered who we were and brought us out drinks. She's a very nice woman."

Ron smiled, "Yeah... she is... did she tell you anything about the picture?"

"No, she said you'd probably want to explain it when you got here, or something like that,"  Nagisa  said, an expecting look on his face.

They all had that look, ready for the explanation  or story that was more than likely about to come. 

"Well, this picture was taken in 2001, in San Francisco, California. That's were the three of us were born. And in the background there is the first dinner our parents ever opened. This was taken the night it opened. This is just a copy though, the original is still in the first dinner, back in California. We hang up a copy in every re staura nt , the night before it opens. Our parents say it's for good luck." Ron began to explain.

The photo portrayed a two young women sitting on a bench in the center of the photo, right outside a large building, illuminated by the light of an "open" sign shining in the window. The woman on the left had short, curly  brown hair and a gorgeous set of brown eyes. Her complexion  was clear and pale and her smile bright and warm. Her face was an oval shape, and she was rather skinny. The woman on the right had a bit less of a warm smile and more of  a smirk. Her skin was a lot tanner but her skin was just as smooth. Her hair was a deep black color. It was straight and long, laying evenly over her shoulders, coming to the middle of her chest. Her eyes were the brightest part of her round face. They sat on top of her full cheeks like emeralds, shinning a beautiful, electrifying green. She had a bit more of a fuller figure than the woman next to her, but they both were beautiful women none the less.

Sitting on the bench, on either side of the women where two men. On the left side, beside the woman with the brown hair, was a man who was much taller than she was. He had curly  hair as well and it la i d  in a bit of a mess on his head. The curl y  heap was a carrot-red color, and his eyes were also brown. He had pale skin, as well only his was covered in an assortment of freckles. They spread across his face and some could be seen on his neck and arms. He wasn't nec es sarily  built, but he wasn't skinny. He had a very slight muscle tone to him. The man on the right, beside the woman with the black hair, however, was def ian tly  muscular. He, also was taller that the woman he sat next to, but not by much for the woman was tall as it were. He had straight black hair, much like the woman. However he had no emotion to his face. He was st e rn  and had an aura that oozed seriousness. He had a square jaw and blue eyes, a light stubble across his jawline.

In each of the couples' laps, sat a boy. In the laps of the couple on the left was a small, red headed boy with big brown eyes. He carried a layer of freckles just like his father. He had a big smile on his face that was sweet and warm, much like his mothers. The boy on the right bore a large grin, that resembled his mothers. He had dark black hair like both his parents. He had green eyes like his mother, and a face shaped more like his father. Unlike either of them however, he had curly  hair. Thick, curly  hair that didn't resemble the thin straight locks of either of his parents.

In between the two parents was a baby girl. She had a smile brighter then any of the others. It stretched from ear to ear. Her hair was black and straight resembling the hair of the couple on the right, and it was pulled up on her head into two, short, little pigtails. She had bright green eyes, like her mother and brother, but they managed to sparkle even brighter then theirs. 

The family didn't stop there however. Along with the couple and the boy on the left, were three little girls. They all sat in a row, on the ground in front of the bench. They were ordered from tallest to shortest, and it seemed from oldest to youngest. The girl dir ectly  in front of their parents, the one on the far left, was the tallest. She had a very skinny body, much like her mother. However, like her younger brother, in her parents lap, she mostly resembled their father. She had the same curl y  red hair, the freckles, and brown eyes. Her hair, was tied into two, beautiful long braids that almost reached her elbows they were so long. She had a small, gentle smile. It wasn't as wide or as strong as her mothers or brothers, but it was just as warm and sincere. The girl in the middle, was the second tallest. She, again, much resembled their father; red, curly  hair, a heavy assortment of freckles, and a slightly skinny build. Her hair was shorter however, it only came to her shoulders, no longer. Unlike her family's hair, it wasn't the slightest bit unru y , but rather, laid in perfect ringlets. The girl had her mouth closed, and showed no teeth in her smile. It was no less of a smile though. It was an elegant smile, and to be truthful it fit the girl. The way her apperance  and posture was firm and well kept. She resembled a perfect "lady." The last girl, and defiantly  the shortest, was the child who broke the chain. She was the only one  whos  appearance  looked more like her mother. She had the brown hair and the lighter brown eyes. Her hair was curly  and defiantly  unruly . She seemed happy none the less, the same bright smile spread across her very lightly freckled cheeks.

"These are my mom and dad,  Hydie  and Lucas," Ron said, pointing at the couple that sat on the left, "and that's me in their lap. I'm about 4 years old there. Jenna's in the middle she's only two. Over here are David, also 4 at the time, and his parents  Annabell  and Robert," he pointed to the couple on the right, "and down here are my sisters," Ron pointed to each girl as he spoke, "The one on the end here is Ashley, she was 8, she's the sister closest to me, and then this is Eliza, she was 11 here but she looks almost as old as..." he paused for a moment, his expression of excitement now fading into something almost sorrowful, "Annalise... She was 14 here..."

Ron's smile was now a pained one, a wistful look in his eyes that were now somewhat watery. "She was the one most excited out of all of us,  ya  know... Mom and dad were obviously elated but... Anna just... she was so happy that they were happy. She was so happy... she was always so happy... even when things were bad she was so happy... I never understood how..." He sniffled and whipped his eyes. 

He then shook his head and smiled again, full and bright. "That's a good thing though... I never saw her unhappy and all my memories of her were good ones... other then the very last..." 

Ron shrugged it off, shaking his head again. "Anyway, the picture... it was fun having that rest a urant  open up then. We were there for so long it feels like I grew up in that rest aura nt . We were there until  I was 10. Then a lot of things got complicated and we moved to New York where mom and dad opened their second rest a urant . Then it became an average thing. It was like every time we blinked a new one was coming out. New Jersey, Long Island , Connecticut , Vermont, Maine. Then a few locations in Canada. It was so much in two years it almost seemed unreal. Then we moved to Tennes se e  and it... didn't really go well... we sold the building and house down there and moved back out to L.A. Things started booming again there, for everyone. Mom and Dad opened a lot more locations, all over L.A. and then they went to Los Vegas, Austin, Dallas, Seattle , Chicago, Miami. They hit a lot of big cities. They were gone a lot but we kept busy. Me and David were gaining national titles and so was Jenna. Eliza got married to my brother-in-law, Ray, and Ashley moved into her own apartment, started working as a bartender at a smaller joint we had in Malibu." 

The group had several reactions through out the story. Obviously they had been excited to hear more about their lives but felt bad for Ron and his family. Once again they tried imaging what it must have felt like losing a sibling, but of course it was impossible. It helped though that Ron seemed to have been able to move on from the subject easier this time rather than last. They again were at full interest and high spirits listening him talk about his family's achievements . Though his hesitation in talking about their time in Tennessee did not go unnoticed by  Nagisa  and Rei, the only ones in the group who had been previously been told the story.

However through the entire story a particular blond continu ed  to look at the picture. He kept noticing an odd-man-out and like before, he couldn't keep the question burning in his throat tamed.

"Um... David?" he prompted, his brow furrowed sta ring  at the picture.

"Yeah?" 

The group's light conversation died down as they listened, interested in what question was puzzling the boy.

"Ronnie- chan  said that the man in this picture was you father, right? But Jenna- chan's  told us before that you don't have a father? What happened? He didn't... die? Did he?"  Nagisa  asked, voice laced with a mixture of curiosity and caution.

David and Jenna exchanged looks, both their faces held serious expressions. David looked down at his glass which was about half full and slightly watered down from melted ice. He sighed and looked at the picture. 

"No... No, he's not dead... but to be truthful it'd be a lot easier if he was," David paused and took a sip of his drink before continuing, now having the groups full attention. "My father, to be frank, is an asshole. A very bad man. He used to abuse me and mother all the time. When Jenna was old enough to understand him, he started to miss treat her too. Mom hated it but she didn't leave him because he was our only source of income at the time. A year after the restaurant opened, it's success  had led to quite a fortune. That's  when my mom divorced him. He fought for custody tooth and nail but to avail. It wasn't hard for the courts to decide we belonged with mom. He did get visitation though. Things were okay for a while. He was a lot easier to deal with when he didn't live with us. A lot less torment and for the most part the visits were short and pleasant, and the fact that they were few and far between made it even easier. The only time it would get hard was when he'd have to come over for the holidays like Thanks Giving and Christmas. Things really started to change when I was aound 9 to 10. Ron and I had just really started realizing that we liked each other more then just normal friends do. We were kids though and we didn't really think anything of it. We'd make claims that we were going to grow up and get married, and to be honest we are still on that path..." David gave a slight smile and a little chuckle, he looked over at  Ron who also smiled, "we used to hold hands and junk and sometimes we'd kiss on the cheek... but when dad found out... he hated it to say the least. He forbade us to be friends. He told my mom that he wouldn't allow his son to grow up a 'faggot.' and that being around Ron was toxic... if we spent less time together I'd 'grow out of it.' Mom was disgusted. She obviously saw nothing wrong with me and Ron liking each other. If anything her and  Hydie  thought it was cute. Things got really bad when he started making threats. He threw bricks into the  McColly  house windows with writ ing  on them that had homophobic slurs. He'd post letters on their door that said if they wanted to keep their son alive they'd keep him away from me. SO mom and Ron's parents had him arrested. He was released on bail and mom had a restraining order put against him and then not long after we packed up and moved to New York." 

Nagisa  looked away from David once he finished and back at the photo in his hands. He stared at the man's face with a look of disgust. 

"I'm sorry you had to go through that... it's something no one should ever have to go through. But at least it's resolved now right? He's out of your life?"  Nagisa's  voice held more serious then he normally was, his apology for their hardships being very sincere.

David nodded, "We didn't tell him when we moved to L.A. he didn't even really know we were back until we were getting ready to move out here. He was disgusted at the thought that we would move to a foreign country, but there's not really much that doesn't disgust him. He's a disgusting person himself so I'm sure it comes easy to him."

The comment made them all laugh, even Haru gave a slight smile.

"How did he react when he found out you and Ron were still together... or did you even tell him?" Makoto asked, gently.

"Yeah. We told him. I made a point of doing it. I wanted to rub it in his face. The day we were moving he came over to our house and that's when I told him. He had honestly seemed somewhat proud of me up until then, having won medals and having such a high ranking in my sport and all. It was a nice moment. We were standing in my room and it was fairly empty. I looked at him and asked 'Hey dad? Do you remember Ron  McColly ? My friend from element a ry  school?' He  squinched  his face up all displease and nodded. Then I pointed at my bed and told him 'Well me and him are actually dating right now and I couldn't tell you how many times we've had sex right there.' He looked at me and his face was priceless. I walked out of that room then... haven't seen or heard from him yet."

The group seemed to get a kick out of that. 

"That's quite a ... bold statement to make, David," Rei stated.

David laughed, "That was the point."

The rest laughed with him and the day continued on from there. No more negative subjects or scaring pasts were brought up. The day became a lot more enjoyable in the moment but it continu ed  to press in the minds of the boys about their new American friends. What hard lives they'd lived, and how they seem to be doing fine, in high spirits and suc c essful . It was impressive really. It made them all feel glad that they got to know them. It mad them very glad that they had joined the swim team.   


_____ _____ _____

"MOM, DAVID, I'M LEAVING, I'LL BE HOME LATER, LOVE YOU, BYE," Jenna called out to her family as she walked out the front door, heading off on her way.

"BYE SWEETIE! HAVE FUN!" he mother called after her in hopes she'd hear her.

David came down stairs then, a dark green duffle bag slug over his shoulder. He headed to the kitchen where his mother was and sat the bag down on the counter. He moved past his mother, who was busy stirring  away at a pot of something on the stove, to the refrigerator, taking out a few bottles of water.

"Where's  Jen headed off to?" David asked.

"She's heading out on a date with  Momo ," she said calmly.

David clenched his jaw so tight he began to hurt his teeth. 

"Well I hope she has fun..." he forces out, taking deep breaths through his nose to calm himself.

"I know this is hard for you, sweetheart, but I'm glad your really trying. I know it means a lot to Jenna."

Annabell  turned around and rubbed her son's back as he put the water bottles into the duffle bag. 

"And it means a lot to me too. I'm proud of you, David." She stated before placing a kiss on his cheek.

"Well... as much as I dislike the thought, Jenna is growing up and I do trust her to make her own d e cisions . I know she's smart and... she wouldn't be going out with him if he weren't a good guy so. He gets a pass for now." David mumbled. 

He zipped his bag back up after also adding a few small, old towels. He slung the bag back up over his shoulder and turned to face his mother.

"Well, I'm off. Me and Ron are going to the gym, we'll be back in a few hours. I love you mom," he said before placing a kiss on her cheek. 

She smiled and patted his arm, "Alright, baby, go have fun. Be safe!"

"Of course," David assured her before leaving the kitchen and then the house.

____ ____ ____

  


So when we wear the full body suits it keeps us warm enough to go surfing in c ol der  weather like early spring and fall. Though it doesn't get as cold during winter were I'm from as it does here, it's still to cold to surf during winter. Some people do it. But not me I tried it only once and I got  waaaaaay  to cold. But also when it comes to cold I'm pretty wimpy I don't like the cold," Jenna continu ed  on. 

She walked down the side walk with her new favorite person, holding his hand. Though her brother may not  ha ve been to happy about it, Jenna was in no way going to decline  Momo's  invitation to go walk through the city with him. 

"It was really bad for me in winter back when we live in New York cause it snows there and get  reaaaaallly  cold and I never liked it. I'm not looking forward to winter this year. When we came here earlier in the year it was the tail end of winter and wasn't as cold but I know it will get cold and I'm not looking forward  to it," Jenna grim a ced . 

She looked up at the redhead. He was sta ring  down at the ground and wasn't really saying anything. He seemed to keep messing with something in his pocket and he seemed nervous. Jenna leaned into him and rubbed her head on his shoulder.

" Momoooo . Are you even listening to me?" she whined .

He snapped his head up and looked at her. She was pouting up at him.

"Y-yes! I was I promise! I just... there ' s  something that I..." he shook his head and let go of her hand and turning to face her. 

Jenna looked up at him now feeling not only con c erned  but nervous herself. What was going on? Why was he acting like this? Is there something going on with her Peach? Or even worse, is he breaking up with her? They weren't even really together yet, just dating but was he about to call it off? Jenna's heart raced and it pounded so hard she could've sworn she felt it press against her skin and it hurt.

"Is something wrong, Peach?" she asked hesitantly.

He looked up at her realizing how timid and worried she had become and a wave of guilt flowed over him.

"No  no no  Jenna-san. I'm fine! Everything ' s  fine. I just... I have something for you..." he said, hesitantly pulling rectangular black velvet box out of his pocket.

Jenna stared at it curiously as he placed it in her hands. She looked up at him, questionable, and he nodded to reas s ure  her. She opened it and inside was a silver charm brac e let . It was made up of several links and some already had charms on it. She looked over it in awe. Staring at it intently she noted each charm that was on it. One was a small little peach with a leaf on the top of it. Another one was a tiny yellow surf board. The brac e let  also contained charms of an American flag, a beetle, a wave and a sun.

Jenna looked back up at Momo shocked.

"This is for me?" she asked, in disbelief.

Momo nodded. He seemed very relieved at Jenna's reaction. 

"I saw it when I was at the store with  Nitori-sempi  a few weeks ago. I got it for you and I was just going to give it to you as was but then I saw the surf board charm in the same case that the bracelet was in and I knew you'd like it so I got it too and then I just kept looking for more that I thought you'd like... I wanted to add more before I gave it to you but  i  figured this way you'd have room to add things yourself." he explained with a wide smile and his normal chipper attitude, "I was just really worried that maybe you wouldn't like it or that it wouldn't fit right but..."  Momo  took the bracelet from Jenna and unclasped it, placing it around her wrist and locking it back together, "It looks like it fits just right!" 

Jenna turned the bracelet over on her wrist several times staring at it with her mouth agape. She looked back up at Momo and kept opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to say something but didn't know what.

"...M- momo ... It's so beautiful... I can't believe you'd do that for me that so sweet of you, I love it." she said.

There were tears in the corners of Jenna's  eyes and  Momo  felt even more delighted that he'd made her this happy. Jenna pulled  Momo  into a hug that she held for a long time. When she let go she stared back down at the bracelet some more, shaking her head.

"Wow... I just can't believe you really got me this... It's so perfect, thank you so much." she praised again.

The extra praise brought a slight blush to  Momo's  cheeks and he shrugged, "I just... wanted to make you smile... Because your smile's so pretty."

Jenna looked up at him and smiled really wide. She hugged him again wrapping her arms around his neck and he held his arms around her back. She didn't actually fully release this time however. She just kind of loosened  her grip and moved her hands down from around his neck to resting on his shoulders. She pulled her head back and rested her forehead against his. They did this alot and everytime they did it they got butterflies from how close the other was. They both smiled sta ring  into the other's eyes. 

That's when Jenna looked down, a light blush on her cheeks as she raised her hands up to either side of his face. She tilted her head to the right just slightly and closed her eyes as she leaned in, planting a soft but loving kiss on his lips.  Momo's  eyes went wide and his face turned red. His grip that had been around her waist loosened. When she pulled away he stared at her in pure shock.

Jenna gave a small nervous laugh and looked down at the ground. She was mostly afraid that this hadn't been the right time for that, but she really liked  Momo  and she wanted to show him how happy he'd made her and-

There it was. The tightening of his grip around her waist, pulling her closer. By the time she'd moved her eyes to look back up at him, he'd already lifted her chin and returned her kiss. His lips were soft and sweet, gentle and warm. His embrace was tight and possessive and she felt like she was floating on air. She didn't want that moment to ever end but it did and when he pulled away he stared at her, wordless with a very red face and a nervous expression.

Jenna grew a very big smile and she wrapped her arms around him and  layed  her head on his shoulder. She let out a content breath and closed her eyes, happy to be standing in the middle of the busy side walk, in his embrace.  Momo  leaned his head against Jenna's and grew a wide smile of his own. Not only had he just made Jenna really happy with the gift he'd gotten her, but the girl that he was head-over-heels for had just kissed him and he kissed her back and she had actually liked it. This was possibly the best day of the young redhead's life and he couldn't wait to get back to the dorm and tell his roommate all about his first kiss.

 

**____ ____ ____**  

 

The gym can be a very stressful place. People have r o utines  that they follow, schedu le s  and places to go after their work out. Yet on the opposite point of view, Ron and David found it a very refreshing place. Going to the gym and working out together was a thing they used to do regularly. They felt that it was relaxing in a way. 

The boys had been at the gym for about an hour, going through their routine at a very laid back pace, taking breaks when necessary. David sat up from his position on the bench press. Ron had been spotting him, and came around from behind the equipment. Ron handed David a towel which he used to wipe off some sweat from his forehead.

"Can you pass me a water bottle?" David asked, handing Ron the towel back.

The redhead nodded and took out the plastic water bottle, replacing it with the used towel, and handed it to his boyfriend.

"Thanks baby," David responded before placing a kiss on Ron's cheek, before taking a sip of his drink. 

"Mhm . Hey, David? I'm  gonna  go ahead and start on the treadmill, you rest for a few minutes and meet me over there. Alright?"

David pulled his drink off his lips, replacing the cap on it. He set the drink down next to him and nodded. 

"Alright, just don't start out to aggressive okay?" David said as he wrapped his arms around Ron's waist and pulled him closer, "You tend to get into it to fast and it worries me. I don't want you hurting yourself, baby."

Ron smiled, he liked being pulled closer. He liked it that David cared about him so much to worry about things that weren ' t  that important. 

"I'll be fine, David, don't worry." 

Ron leaned down and kissed David to give him extra reas s urance  before breaking out of his boyfriend's grip and heading over to the treadmills. David watched as he walked away. He didn't necessaraly want Ron to leave but he didn't mind the _sight_ of him leaving. Ron had a nice ass.

David sat on the bench for a while, sipping at his water bottle and cooling off. He checked his phone and saw a string of messages from Jenna.

** From Jenny: **hey bubba, please don't be mad at me, but I went out on a date with  Momo  again

**From Jenny: ** we had our first kiss and  i  think things may be getting serious

** From Jenny: **but  i  think  im  really ok with that.  i  know you  dont  like him but  i  like really do and  i  hope you get to like him too because  i  like spending time with him 

** From Jenny: **and  hes  really sweet and makes me laugh and  im  so sorry bubba

** From Jenny: **pls dont  be mad

** From Jenny: **bubby?  pls  answer me

David stared down at his phone. He let out a sigh. He shouldn't have been so ag g ressive . The last thing he ever wanted to be like was his father and by disapproving of Jenna's relationship, it was exactly what he was doing. He began a reply im mediate ly .

** To Jenny: **sweetie,  i  love you. your my sister. as long as your happy and he  doesn't  hurt you,  im  okay with it.  im  happy your having a good time. 

** To Jenny: **and the only reason  i  was so against you dating Momotaru was never because of him,  necessarily . it  doesnt  matter who it is. im just afraid ok.

** To Jenny:  **youre my baby sister and your growing up to fast and its really scary. ****

** To Jenny: **im  a senior Jen. im gonna  be moving out and going to college next year. and im not gonna be there to watch over you or take care of you. you and mom are gonna be alone.

** To Jenny: **its all going so fast and  im  really afraid. i just  dont  feel ready to entrust you to some other guy. and i mean...  i know you can take care of yourself but. still. the thought of leaving my baby sister to someone else is something i dont  want to do, but eventually ill have to. and whe  i have to i want it to be the right guy.  Momos  a great kid. but  i  still just need more time before i can let you go...

David stopped and stared at his phone, his eyes watery. He whipped them off and waited for a reply. None came.

** To Jenny:  **... that was kind of heavy, im sorry

No less then 10 seconds after he sent the text a little envolope popped up on his screen. 

** New Message **

** From Jenny:  **i love you bubba

** To Jenny: ** i love you too Jen

** From Jenny: ** i wanna  hug you when you get home ok

David chuckled, whipping his eyes again.   


** To Jenny: ** ok but im at the gym so ill be sweaty and gross, just warning you

** From Jenny:  **ill live

** From Jenny: **see you soon bubba

** To Jenny: **see you soon

David let out a shaky  breath and turned off his phone screen, sticking it back in his pocket. He bent over, his elbows on his knees, and placed his face in his hands. He took a few more breaths before rubbing his face a few times and sitting back up. He zipped up his bag but before he could get up and go join Ron he was approached by a boy that was vaguely  familiar .

"Um, are you okay? You look like you've been crying," a boy that was much shorter then David, around the same hight  as  Nagisa was standing over him.

He had silver hair that framed his face in a way that was rough and choppy but fit him in a way that almost looked elegant . He had pale milky skin and sparkling blue eyes, a small birthmark under one. 

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine... I just had a... difficult conversation with my sister and it ... it  kinda messed me up but I'll be fine don't worry." David assured.

He looked the boy up and down a few times before finally asking, "Don't I know you? ... Yeah, yeah. I remember, you're one of the boys from the  Samezuka  team.  Nitori  right? Your dating the captain?" 

Nitori  nodded, "Y-yes that's  me, and you're David, right?"

David nodded.  Nitori  looked down at the ground and pulled at his clothes a bit, ne rv ously .

 "but... how did you know that I was dating Rin ?"

"My sister's dating your roommate,"

"Right. That makes sence."

"Yeah. So  whattcha doin out here? Doesn't Samezuka have it's own gym for the athletes?"

"Yes it does... but I prefer to come here and work out by myself. The only time I really use the school gym is when I'm helping  Rin  with his routine... but he doesn't really need my help anymore."

Nitori  looked down at the ground, his eyes slightly lidded. He seemed sad. David scooted further down on the bench and patted the area next to him. 

"Sit down... you look like you need to get some stuff off your chest."

Nitori  sat and let out a small sigh.

"I know you don't know Rin so I want to start off with he's a good boyfriend. He takes care of me and he loves me... he just... he doesn't really seem to pay attention to me all that much anymore... it's all been since  Sousuke  transfer r ed  to our school.  Rin and him were friend when they were little and so at first I didn't mind them spending a little more time together, that's  normal to want to reconnect. make up for lost time  ya  know? ... but then it just became more like  Rin  didn't need me. I tried to make plans for dates but he's always busy. I try and call him and he doesn't answer. He doesn't even really talk to me at practice that much anymore... I just... I want my boyfriend back..."

David put a hand on his back and rubbed. Nitori let out a small laugh.

"Look at me... telling all my problems to a person I barely know... "

David stared at him, thinking long and hard about what to say. His face was serious, his mouth taught into a straight line.

"Well,  Nitori ... I can't say as though I'd personal l y  know how you feel... me and Ron, my boyfriend, have always been together. We've never lived further then next door to each other and we've never been apart longer then a month at a time. We're always there for each other and no one comes between us... But it's different. We have a very... eh.. _organic_ style of relationship, not many people have it. And as a result of us having this ' _organic_ ' relationship, I don't know much about rela tionships  with people that you haven't known forever. It's one of the reasons why I'm having a hard time understanding Jenna and  Momo's  relationship right now... but what I do know is that if you love someone, you make time for them. You go out of your way to make them happy and if your not doing that then something's wrong. And I'm not saying everyone ' s  perfect either. People make mistakes. I think  Rin  is just in the middle of a mistake right now that he doesn't realize he's making. You just need to find a way to make him realize that mistake. Once he does, if he's as good of a guy as you say, and he really does love you, things will change. Quickly."

Nitori  listened very carefully. He nodded his head now and then. When David finished speaking,  Nitori  looked up at him seeming a lot more hopeful. He stood up and bowed to David. David also stood and nodded to  Nitori , who, now that they were both standing, seemed a lot shorter. 

"Thank you David-  er ... sempai?"  Nitori  thanked him, but hesitated on adding the honorific.

David just smiled, "Just 'David' is fine. I wont find it rude if you don't say it. Trust me I understand how hard it is to make foreign names sound right when you say them, and an honorific just doesn't sound right with my name...  Nagisa  doesn't even add ' chan ' to my name, and he does that to everyone. It just doesn't sound right."

Nitori  gave a small laugh and nodded before they parted ways. Nitori headed for the exit, apparently he'd already finished his routine before going to talk with David.   


David watched as  Nitori  left before gathering the duffle bag and heading over to the area in the next room that had an ocean of treadmills , stair climbers , and stationary bicycles . David searched through the rows of treadmil l s  and eventually found Ron. He was sitting on the edge of his treadmill, that had of course been turned off. He stood up when he saw David aproaching .   


"Where the hell have you been, David? You've been on break for a half an hour now, I was just about to come and find you." Ron laid into him, his voice sounding almost angry, though he wasn't yelling.

"Really? It's been that long?" David asked as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked. Ron was right, it had been 36 minutes since he was left in the weight room.

"Yes! It's been that long!"

David frowned. He set the bag down and wrapped his arms around Ron. He brought him in close to his chest and Ron melted into it. He rested his head against David's chest and gripped his shirt. 

"I'm sorry baby. I just got distracted. I was texting Jenna for a long time and then I was talking with  Nitori  from  Samezuka's  team and ... time just got away from me..." 

Ron sighed and rubbed his head on David's chest.

"It's okay. I'm just ready to go home." 

David ran his fingers through Ron's hair and gave him a kiss on the top of his head.  With his other hand he rubbed small circles into Ron's back.

"Alright, baby. Let's go home."

David picked up the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulder and took Ron's hand and the two headed out together.

  


_____ _____ _____

  


"Ron, baby, you need to eat," David scolded his boyfriend.

The friends were all sitting on the roof together, the place they normal l y  ate lunch. Ron was leaning against David, his lunch unopened in his backpack, while he sat there playing on his phone.

"But I'm not hungry." he whined.

"You're never hungry, baby, that doesn't mean you don't have to eat." 

Ron crossed his arms and let out a huff. He reached into his bag and took out his lunch. It was a white paper bag with the words "M & M" on it in blue and red, inside a big star. Inside was a simple mean, a ham b urger  and a small con ta iner  of  f rench  fries.

Ron picked at the  f rench  fries, eating a few now and then. David rubbed his shoulder and gave a kiss to the top of his head.

"You know I'm only trying to help you," he whispered to him

"I know... I'm just... not hungry. It's hard to force yourself to eat."

"I know baby. But you need to or you'll end up hurting yourself. You go out and swim and exercise and, and your just burning calories that you don't have."

"I know..."

Ron nodded. He leaned against David and rubbed his head into his shoulder. David fully wrapped his arm around him and pulled him closer. 

"I wish I did get hungry more often and that I could enjoy my food more... it just feels like a chore."  Ron complained, finally taking a bite out of burger.

David rubbed his arm some more  and gave another kiss to his head.

"I know baby," David said to him again.

The conversation had been spoken in English. Jenna and the other boys had been talking amongst themselves in their own conversation, and since Ron and David had only been talking to each other they felt more comf o rtable  speaking in English. After all it was easier for them, English was their fist language.

It being in English, the conversation had sparked the in tere st  of the ever so curious blond. He had been  invested in listening to a conversation between Rei and Jenna. Though it was more like a lecture. Rei had been telling Jenna that her studying habits in her math cour s es  were subpar and she was insi s ting  that they were just fine.  Nagisa  had been listening quite intently to their conversation, chiming in at times. However when he heard his friends speaking in English, he couldn't help but listen, it was a foreign language and it was interesting to hear. Though it was hard, he did understand a few words here and there. However there was one word he continual l y  heard David use that he didn't understand his purpose for using.

"David?"  Nagisa  finally spoke, after the boy's conversation had finished.

" Hm ?"

David turned his head to look at him, and Ron did as well.  Nagisa  turned around to face them directly. His discon n ection  from Rei and Jenna's slight argu ment  didn't really come to their attention.

"What does that word mean?"

"What word?" David asked.

"The one you always say to Ron?  Bbb ... 'B-baby'? Doesn't that mean infant?"

"Well... yes in one sen s e ."

"What do you mean? 'In one sen s e '?" 

"Well,  Nagisa , you know how in English we have a lot of words that are spelled the same but have different meanings or have words that are spelled different but have the same meanings?"

"Yeah... and it's weird."

"I know, and honestly, as an English speak i ng  person, English makes no sen s e , like at all, but in the same sen s e , we'll have one word that has multiple meanings. The word 'Baby' means infant, yes. That ' s  the definition you'd get if you were to look it up in like a dictionary or on google, but any word can have its own def inition  in a slang sen s e . And that is how I use the word 'baby.' In it's slang def inition . "

"Well what is the slang meaning? Is it a bad word?"

"Oh god no. The opposite in fact. The 'slang' way of saying 'baby' is a loving term. It's a nickname that people use for their lovers. It's a very affectionate name. When you call your lover 'baby' it shows that you love them, that you care for them, and that they are your lover and that no one else can claim them." David exp la ined , when he finished speaking he kissed Ron's head again.

Nagisa  nodded, "Ooh, okay. I get it."

"Yeah and there are other words that have the same kind of meaning. Like 'sweethea r t , sweetie pie , honey and so on."

" Oohh ! I hear you say those a lot, that makes sen s e  now. I always thought you were saying the word to Ron, but now I get it, your actually calling him that."

David nodded. " Mhm , exactly." 

Nagisa  seemed excited now to know all these new words. There was no doubt in David's minds that Rei would probably be hearing them sometime in the near future. 

"Do you like being called those names Ron?"  Nagisa  asked.

Ron nodded, "Yeah, I love it, " he said, leaning his head back against David's arm to look up at him., "Cause I love David."

David pulled Ron's hair back and kissed his forehead. Ron and  Nagisa  both smiled. 

____ ____ ____

  


" Nitori -Sempai!"  Momotaru  called from the other side of the room, his hand on the doorknob, "I'm heading out, wish me luck."

"Good luck,  Momo -kun. I'm sure she'll say yes,"  Nitori  encouraged, but his voice sounded hollow.

"Thanks Sempai... and good luck to you too... I'm sure he'll understand."  Momo , returned the encouragement.

"Thank you."  Nitori  sighed, forcing a smile.

Momo  walked over to his roommate and patted his back, "It'll be okay, and if it doesn't, call me okay. It wont inter r upt  anything, I promise, just don't keep trying to handle these things on your own... it's okay to ask for help or comfort."  Momo  attempted to calm him before finally leaving the dorm and heading out for his date with Jenna.

Nit o ri  sat in the chair at his desk for a while, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. He took some deep breaths. Eventually he stood up and walk t owa rds  the door. His hands were shak y  and he gr a sped  the door handle so hard his knuckles turned white. He honestly was just trying to get his hands to stop shaking.

Once he'd worked the courage up fully in his mind, he opened the door and walked a few steps to the door across the hall. He took a few deep breaths again before knocking on the door three times and taking one step back from it.  Nitori  could hear  Rin  and  Sousuke  mumble something to each other and then heard a creaking sound of someone getting up off a bed.  Nitori  breathed one more time before the door opened. His heart was pounding, he rarely ever got this nervous.

Sousuke  was the one who answered the door.  Nitori's  nerves then just became even worse. He gripped the inside of his shorts pockets tight to make his hands stop shaking.

"Um, I need to talk to  Rin , please," he almost sque a ked  out. 

His was kicking himself in his head for allowing himself to sound so weak.

"He's studying right now, come back later," he stated very dryly and began to close the door.

Nitori  quickly stepped  forward  and put is hands on the door stopping  Sousuke  from closing it.

" No!..I-I  ... this can't wait I need to talk to him. Now."  Nitori  pressed, taking another step t owa rds  the taller male, this time sounding more assertive.

Sousuke  stood there for a moment, taken back by the young boy's assertion. He'd never seen him so ad ama nt . After collecting his thoughts and returning to himself, the elder boy stepped back a bit, and called out to  Rin .

The redhead stood up from his desk and came to the door.  Sousuke  excused himself back to his bed.  Rin  stepped out into the hallway with  Nitori  and shut the door behind him.

"Hey, Ai, what's this about?"  Rin  asked looking confused.

Nitori  had his arms crossed and his hands were shaking again. 

"We uh.. We  need to talk  Rin . About us."

Rin  was taken back by his boyfriends tone and his words.

"Uh, yeah sure, babe, what ' s  the matter."

Nitori  looked down at the ground and chewed on his lip, contemplating how he was going to word this. He'd done it several times before and it was no different now, he came to the same de c ision , to just say it straight.

"I miss you." 

"What? What do you mean you miss me? Ai, I live right across the hall, we see each other every time we go to practice."

Nitori  sighed, "But it's different  Rin . You never call me anymore, you never text me anymore. And you sa y  that you live right across the hall, well yeah, you do, yet you never make the effort to walk four feet across the hall to see me. I have to come over to see you, and I do it all the time, but it doesn't matter because either  Sousuke  shews me away or you tell me your busy. Yes we see each other at swim practice but that ' s  about it. We only see  each other. You never talk to me at practice anymore you never ask me to time you or help you, nothing. And anytime I talk to you ,  you ' r e  always busy either talking to someone else or attending to captain business. I know you can't help that specifically but... I just I miss you and I want to spend time with you... I used to think you wanted the same but... now I just don't know..." 

Rin  listened to him and he didn't inter r upt  him, he let him finish, but it was obvious that he was becoming more and more frust rated  by what he was hearing.

"Look,  Nitori , I'm one person and I have a lot going on right how and I don't need this. I'm not neglecting you, I think your over reacting. I just need you to... to"

"To what  Rin ? To take a backseat to everything else possible in your life that apparently is much more important?"  Nitori  yelled, his voice cracking his hands shaking worse.

" Nitori ! It's not that bad okay? Give me my space and just get over it!"  Rin  re sponded , his voice raised.

Nitori  broke, his stamina shattered. Small streams of water started to spill from his eyes. His lip quivered, his hands balled up in fists.

"S-sorry... I'll just leave you alone and go...  ge -get over it..."  Nitori  tried to hold back from crying more. 

He turned around and went back into his room and slammed the door. He turned his back to the door and leaned against it. He continu ed  to try not to cry but eventually slid down the door into a sitting position and started crying.

Rin  took a second to realize what he just said. Once he took in the fact that he had yelled at  Nitori  and made him cry. He sighed and shook his head, disgusted with himself.  Nitori  was trying to tell him that he felt neglected and what did he do in respon s e ? Neglect him.

Rin  went over to the door and banged his head against it.

" Nitori ? I'm so sorry. You were trying to tell me about the fact that I was being a shitty boyfriend and then I just went and proved your point... I love you so much and I take you for granted all the time. I'm not a good boyfriend... you deserve so much better than me. You deserve the world and I love you so much... I just fucked up and I don't expect you to forgive me right away... if ever... I'll just... I'll leave you alone..."

NItori  stood up and turned around opening the door im mediate ly . 

"No! Please! Don't leave! That's the point I don't want you to leave me!"  Nitori  yelled, tears running down his face. He wrapped his arms around  Rin  who then wrapped his arms around him as well.

" Nitori , why would you still want to be around me after all I've done to you... and all the shit I put you through... you still forgive me?"  Rin  asked in disb e lief . 

He held  Nitori  close to his chest, rubbing his back to help stop the crying .

"Of course I forgive you... I love you id iot ."  Nitori  said, pulling away and whipping his eyes off. 

Rin  pulled  Nitori  t owa rds  their old room.

"Come on, Ai, lets go inside. I'm  gonna  spend the rest of the day with you okay? And tomorrow too. We'll do whatever you want."

Nitori  nodded, whipping away more tears, his breathing calming down, "O-okay.. I'd like that."

_____ _____ _____

  


  
Momotaru  sat in at their usual table outside of the diner. He  sat there tapping his foot, seemingly patiently waiting but on the inside he was dying . Why was she late? She's normally here there before him. What was taking her so long? Was she not going to come? The thoughts  continu ed  to swarm him.

When he finally caught sight of Jenna walking toward him, he felt a wave of relief rush over him.  He stood up when she approached him and they hugged like they always did when they saw each other, and, what has become a more recent habit, kissed. The two sat down opposite of each other at the table. 

They talked for a little while, waiting for their food. It was late and the stars were starting to poke through the dark sheet of sky above them. The mood just felt off though.  The two stayed quiet during their meal and they were silent for while afterword.  It eventually just became to much for Jenna and she had to say something.

" Momo ?" Jenna asked. 

Momo  looked up from his drink. He'd been playing with the straw in it.

"What's wrong? Why have you been acting so weird today? Are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong?"

Momo's  head shot up right away to look at her. 

"No! No, Jenna. I'm not mad at you at all I'm just... I have something very important I  wanna  ask you and I don't really know how to bring it up so I've been sitting here thinking of how to day it but the longer I sit here and think about it the longer the silence goes on and the more awkward it gets and the less I want to ask it." He let out, his word flowing out fast like rapids. He took in a breath when he finished, having said it all in one breath.

Jenna sat back a bit in her chair, the concern still apparent in her face but she seemed at least slightly more relived. 

"So... what is it you wanted to ask me?" Jenna pressed, still sounding concerned.

"I-I... well I wanted to know if... if you would,  ya  know,  officially  ,  be my... girlfriend."

Jenna blinked a few times. That was the most nervous she'd ever heard  Momo  before. He'd  gotten  so worked up over her. He wanted to officially be with her and her only. Not just dating but in a true relationship. 

A light blush came across Jenna's cheeks, flattered and excited and elated and relieved all in one emotion. Before she could even speak she was nodding her head.

"Y-yeah, yes! Yes of course,  Momo . I'd love that."

The redhead stood up almost caus ing his chair to fall over from the force of his excite ment. He walked over to the other side of the table and took her into his arms. Jenna giggled and rubbed her head into his shoulder. She was so happy that she couldn't even begin to describe it. 

The new couple kissed several times before pulling away from each other, hands laced together. 

"I can't wait to tell everyone... but wait... can we? Wont your brother get mad?"

Jenna smiled and shook her head, "No, he's over that now. We've done a lot of talking  lately  and he actually wants to meet you now. He wants to get to know you, and my mom really wants to meet you."

Momo  seemed to become even more excited. 

"I'd love to meet them... wow I-I... I can't believe they want to meet me..." 

Jenna's smile continu ed  to grow. She reached up and kissed him. She wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss lasted for a while. Once they broke they sat and talked more before eventually parting ways.

Once  Momo  returned home, he saw that things had gone well with  Nitori  seeing sense when he walked into his dorm and  Rin  was laying on the bottom bunk with  Nitori  cuddled in his arms.

When  Momo  walked in both boys perked up looking very interested in what  Momo  had to tell them.

"So??"  Nitori  began.

"How'd it go? What'd she say?"  Rin  finished the sentence,  interupting  his boyfriend. 

The boys didn't even really need to ask because the smile on his face said it all.

"She said yes! She was so excited and she even wants me to go with her to meet her family... I can't believe it... I have a girlfriend..." He said, his voice and face just awestruck.

Nitori  clapped his hands together and smiled, "Oh that so great,  Momo -kun, I'm so happy for you!"

Rin  stood up and put an arm around  Momo  and ruffled up his hair, "Nice job, kid. I'm glad the both of you have each other."

Momo  let out a little laugh, "Your just glad it's not Gou-san," he teased. 

All three boys laughed and  Momo  filled them in on nearly ever single detail of the night. Then the boys said their good nights to each other,  Rin  returning to his own room. Momo laid  on his bunk staring up at the ceiling  unable to contain his smile. It was real now. Jenna was his and no one else's. Things were looking pretty great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well fuck me. thats all i really have to say. i mean this chapter just was really hard to do. I was writing consistently for a while right after chapter 3 came out but then i just felt very displeased with how the story was going and I just needed to take some time and rethink my plan for these characters and sequence of events. Once I really figured it out I started working consistently again. One thing that sped up the process is i recently got a new laptop so its a lot easier to write on when you have fucking spell check and shit and a running computer that isn't a piece of shit. So this chapter came out pretty well i think. I'm happy with it at least. I want to tell you that chapter 5 will be out soon but honestly i dont know because im in school again and anything can happen and I just dont know. so hopes that it'll be out soon but who knows tbh.  
> I wanna give a special thanks to Sabrina for keeping me into this and not letting me get to terribly distracted. I love you bae♥

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so another fic involving ocs. I know that I say I never do that, when in fact all I've ever posted are OC fics. This is something I never used to do though, and by that I mean posting said fics. However recently Nia's been giving me encouragement to post them so I have been.  
> I know that I also probably shouldn't post a brand new multi chapter fic when I haven't been keeping up with Something Right but I've been really blocked on that fic and this one is going to be easier to keep up with I think. So yeah hopefully I'll post on this frequently. My motivation also kinda depends on the reaction this gets as well and if said reaction is positive or negative.


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